Reflection – Research Project

Reflection – Total Parenteral Nutrition

  1. Identify if there is an indication to TPN
  3. Information gathering:
      1. Calculate BMI, IBW and do adjBW if overweight
    2. usual weight at home
    3. weight change
    4. nutrition status
      1. intake during hospital admission
      2. intake prior to hospital admission
      3. signs of muscle wasting
    5. PMHx
      2. diabetes
    6. IV maintenance fluids and replacement fluids
    7. IV access
    8. Inputs and outputs
      2. Diarrhea → lose bicarb, sodium, chloride
      3. Vomiting → lose chloride
  4. Order any electrolyte replacement orders
    2. Electrolyte replacements would be given prior to TPN start

General monitoring parameters:

  • Weights today and then q Mon + Th
  • Ins and outs
  • Calorie counts if progressing with diet
  • Plan with diet (decided by surgery)
  • Plan with surgery

Practical pearls:

Reflection – Leadership

This was my first non-clinical rotation, and I think the timing of this rotation at the half-way mark of my residency is very fitting. It was very eye-opening to see the layers of management and leadership behind ensuring that all the operations, clinical services and strategic plans run smoothly.

Through shadowing Mits, and having discussions and daily reflections with Mits, I had the opportunity to learn and observe about his management and communication styles.

Some clinical pearls I learned were:

  1. Communicating with SBAR

    Prior to this rotation, SBAR was something I had only seen on a nursing communication sheet at MSJ. SBAR stands for Situation, Background, Assessment and Recommendation – it follows a similar order that SOAP does. When addressing a management issue, Mits had me practice how I would explain this particular issue through SBAR and I was also able to observe how Mits used SBAR to explain the same issue to a medical director. One difference between the way I explained SBAR and Mits was that he included parts of the “R” in my “S” to allow the receiving end to understand the purpose of the conversation. I think this tool will be a very systematic and effective way for me to communicate issues to other health care team members and my colleagues.

  2. Communicating with OWTF and using “I” language

    OTFW is communicating by talking about what I observed, what I think, what I feel and want. The order doesn’t have to exactly follow OTFW, but the key is to touch on all of them when bringing up an issue. Communicating with OWTF and using “I” language will help others understand your perspective, communicate in a non-confrontational manner and provide others with the choice of helping you (versus demanding for assistance on the matter).

  3. ADKAR

    Implementing and ensuring successful change requires going through all 5 steps of ADKAR. On my last day, we attended a leadership forum at Burnaby Hospital where managers, coorindators, PCCs, LPNs and executive directors presented and discussed about the health care report card, different initiatives taking place at BH, the successful patient stories and steps to take and are being taken to ensure successful change. This forum was also great example of another communication tip that Mits taught me and that was to ensure that everything communicated does a 360. If there is an issue, ensure that those who brought up the issue are made aware of the status of the issue (e.g. email, verbal communication, interim reports). This forum provided an opportunity for the leaders in BH to provide feedback and input, as well as, ask questions to president of Fraser Health, Michael Marchbank. Overall, it was a great end to my rotation to see ADKAR being applied in practice!

  4. The Donut Model imageskykedry3

    The Donut Model consists of 3 layers – the inner most represents what you can directly affect (e.g. what you can wear)?, the second layer represents what you can influence and the third layer represents what you can’t control (e.g. weather, the past). It is important, in my residency year and the rest of my career, to be aware of these different layers and avoid putting my energy into things I cannot control.

Reflections – Cardiology

This was by far one of my favorite rotations in residency! Herb and the interdisciplinary team at SMH were amazing and incredibly supportive throughout my rotation. When discussing my patients, Herb would write out my patients’ medical conditions, medications and history on a board. This definitely made it a lot easier to draw connections between the progress in hospital and their medications.

During this rotation, I feel that I have gained a stronger understanding of various cardiac conditions, as well as, the evidence and key landmark trials. Aside from my objectives, other things I was able to improve on are identifying patient-specific goals, presentation skills, patient interviewing and chart documentation. These are things I can definitely still work on but with the help of Herb, I feel more confident in these areas and will continue to work on them in my future rotations/practice. Additionally, during this rotation,  Herb taught me how to perform physical assessments and learn how to interpret them. It was definitely exciting to be actually performing these assessments on real patients, instead of lab simulators! While a little daunting at first, making sure I did physical assessments whenever I had the opportunity to helped increase my comfort level and enhanced my ability to see my patient as a whole. All in all, this was a fantastic rotation and I will definitely aim to keep using the skills I have gained in future rotations! 🙂

Reflections – Surgery

The following are my objectives for surgery:

  1. Continue to develop a systematic thought process to assessing and managing infectious diseases
  2. Continue to develop my ability to practice antimicrobial stewardship (e.g. assessing when therapy can be narrowed, for IV to PO stepdown)
  3. Continue to develop my ability to effectively perform therapeutic drug monitoring on medications such as vancomycin, aminoglycosides and anticoagulation
  4. Develop my ability to effectively manage anti-coagulation (e.g. pre- and post-op management, duration of treatment or prophylaxis)
  5. Continue to develop my ability to write concise and clear chart notes

Another great rotation at RCH! Bruce was incredibly knowledgeable and helped to build my thought process regarding patients in surgery. This rotation definitely gave me a lot of experience with infectious diseases, especially intra-abdominal infections. Bruce also helped schedule a shadowing opportunity for me with one of the antimicrobial stewardship pharmacists. One key thing I will always keep in mind when managing infections is the importance of source control! Unfortunately, I was not able to get any experience with aminoglycosides…but was able to get lots of experience with anticoagulation (e.g. VTE prophylaxis for patients who have abdominal surgery for cancer – requires 28 days of LMWH). Generally, VTE prophylaxis is started on POD 1 with dalteparin if eGFR > 10. With Bruce’s guidance, I was able to write clearer chart notes. Writing concise and clear chart notes will definitely be a goal that I will continue in future rotations.

Reflections – Psychiatry

Psychiatry is definitely a very different and complex field, and I am very fortunate to have such an experienced and knowledgeable preceptor to help guide me through psychiatry! 🙂 During this rotation, I had the opportunity to care for patients with various psychiatric disorders such as eating disorders, bipolar, and many more. Before this rotation, I had found psychiatry very daunting…and it’s definitely more of an art than a science as evidence in psychiatry often has various limitations. But, with the help of Gillian, I was able to develop a systematic approach to working up patients and identifying and comparing different therapeutic alternatives. Additionally, through our therapeutic discussions, I also gained a stronger understanding of common psychiatric disorders and was able to garner a lot of clinical pearls from Gillian. In my future rotations, I will continue to develop my knowledge and ability to perform therapeutic drug monitoring for common psychiatric medications (e.g. lithium).

Reflections – General Medicine

I can’t believe how quickly this rotation flew by! I’m very fortunate to have been able to work with such a supportive preceptor and health care team at the Short Stay Medical Unit (SSMU).

These were my objectives for this rotation:

  1. Develop and strengthen my systematic approach to assess and work up patients
  2. Develop my ability to clearly and concisely document my soap notes and important patient interactions
  3. Develop my ability to effectively perform therapeutic drug monitoring on medications such as vancomycin, aminoglycosides, digoxin and anticoagulation
  4. Develop my ability to practice antimicrobial stewardship (e.g. assessing when therapy can be narrowed, for IV to PO stepdown)

During this rotation, my preceptor helped to build on my approach and when I presented on my patients, he would help map it all out on the whiteboard. This made it easier for me to view my patient as a whole and connect their medications to their indications and medical conditions. The importance of matching medications to medical conditions, vice versa was emphasized with this rotation. Additionally, I feel that I was able to improve on my documentation, especially on my soap notes for therapeutic drug monitoring (e.g. for vancomycin). Unfortunately, I was not able to get much experience with monitoring of digoxin or aminoglycosides. I was able to see various patients with pneumonia, and had more experience assessing for narrowing of therapy and IV to PO stepdown.


Siskiyou Review: ‘Getaway Girl’ get 5 Stars

by Shelee Juarez, Columnist

Getaway Girl by Tessa Bailey was the quintessential friends-to-lovers romance with an angst-filled and wonderfully written lead-up from friendship to beyond. Most crucial to this story was the friendship between Addison and Elijah. Bailey took her time with it, creating and crafting a close companionship that spoke louder than attractions and became this foundation for two people–both suffering two very different lives–to find that solidity they craved. Not only was their friendship forbidden, but so was absolutely anything more than that. The obstacles their friendship and more intense feelings created both served and detracted from their romance in equal fashion–all of which created a stunningly addictive love story.

The dynamic between the well-mannered, soon-to-be-mayor and the town’s pariah was as fascinating as it was complicated. And though it added a particular spice, what was most beguiling was that raw instinctual need the characters had to be near one another that went beyond the physical attraction. They two brought out sides to one another which neither knew was possible, and constructed roots that finally found a soil to dig into. Addison’s wild was soothed by his calm and gave her a place to call home and feel safe. In equal measure, she gave him the ability to let loose from that carefully crafted political persona of his to find his true motives. It was a love between friends that grew to become a safe place to land, and that was impossible not to feel.

Bailey continuously reinvents herself with each of her books, bringing forth characters with vastly different personalities and hangups. In the end she always brings it back to that one crucial thing: finding that perfectly beautiful and visceral love story. Filled with an ignitable couple that is as intimately touching as it is emotionally so, Getaway Girl shines on its own for all of the little things it says that speak so loud.

I give this novel 5 out of 5 stars.

This unlikely getaway driver never expected to help the mayor escape…

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The Past in Egypt’s Present

Egyptians must answer the vexing question that they have failed for six decades to confront: What is Egypt? One must hope that the experience of recent decades will induce a broad range of Egyptians to seek an answer based on respect for plurality of ideas, frames of reference, and traditions.

Egypt’s recent past is indeed provocative. Mohamed Ali, the Ottoman adventurer who took control in 1805 after France’s withdrawal, began to modernize Egypt by introducing effective administration, industrialization, exposure to Europe, and a standing army. The Mohamed Ali dynasty’s first six decades in power created an Egyptian empire that stretched from the sources of the Nile in east Africa to the eastern parts of Turkey, including the entire eastern Mediterranean and two-thirds of what is today Saudi Arabia. But the empire fell when the dreams of the Pasha’s descendants exceeded their state’s resources and capacities.

The early-twentieth-century liberal experiment, when Egypt adopted the Arab world’s first comprehensive constitution (in 1923), took the state away from Ali’s family and (at least in theory) gave it to the people. Egypt enjoyed the beginnings of democracy, true representation, constitutionalism, and, crucially, the notion – central to modern citizenship – of equal rights and obligations.

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Why is France Daesh’s top terror target in Europe?

PARIS—When militants loyal to Daesh seek to inflict pain on Europe, France is their preferred target, a grim reality borne out yet again with Tuesday’s knife slaughter of a Catholic priest.

Since January 2015, attacks inspired by Daesh, also known as ISIS and ISIL, have killed at least 235 people in France, by far the largest casualty rate of any Western country. French citizens or French-speaking residents have committed the overwhelming majority of strikes, often employing suicide tactics alongside command of their home surroundings.

Soldiers patrol the famed Promenade des Anglais in Nice, southern France. Since January 2015, Daesh-inspired attackers have killed at least 235 people in France, by far the largest casualty rate of any Western country.

President François Hollande argues that France is their top enemy on the continent because of his homeland’s reputation as a cradle of human rights and democracy.

“If terrorists strike us, it is because they know what France represents,” Hollande said after this month’s Bastille Day truck attack that killed 84 people on Nice’s crowded waterfront.

Analysts agree that Daesh propagandists particularly target France as a land anchored in secular values, liberal freedoms and life’s pleasures. But its colonial history, demographic tensions and interventionist policies against militant Muslims abroad point to deeper reasons why anti-Western killers seek so ruthlessly to bring grief to France’s door.

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France has the largest population of Muslims in Europe, more than 5 million in a nation of 66 million, a legacy of its colonial domination of large swathes of Africa and the Middle East. Most have grown up speaking French alongside Arabic and are disproportionately represented in France’s poorest, most alienated districts.

French soldiers and special forces remain committed today in predominantly Muslim corners of former overseas possessions, fighting Daesh-linked extremists in Africa and fuelling calls for retaliation on French soil. French air power is strengthening the nearly two-year-old coalition offensive against suspected Daesh targets in Iraq and Syria, too.

France’s exceptional public focus on promoting integration into a secular society has fuelled chronic tension with its Muslim minority, exemplified by a 2010 ban on wearing face-covering veils and a 2004 ban on Islamic head scarves in the classroom.

“France’s model of integration is generous in its principles but too rigid in its practice,” Farhad Khosrokhavar, a sociologist who is an expert on the Muslim experience in French life, wrote in an analysis for The New York Times.

“Although France has managed to integrate many immigrants and their descendants, those it has left on the sidelines are more embittered than their British or German peers, and many feel insulted in their Muslim or Arab identity,” he wrote, noting that alienation can run particularly deep among those from France’s nearest Muslim neighbours: Morocco, Tunisia and Algeria across the Mediterranean Sea.

France has suffered terrorism incubated in Algeria since the late 1950s as the French fought an ultimately doomed war to retain their major North African possession. France withdrew from Morocco in 1955, Tunisia in 1956 and Algeria in 1962.

But just as in West Africa, where French finance and military might continue to shore up friendly governments, France has never fully withdrawn its influence, maintaining a far more hands-on role than the British do in their former empire.

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In the mid-1990s, the Armed Islamic Group of Algeria — which decapitated citizens and slaughtered foreigners on home soil as it sought to overthrow a French-backed government — mobilized supporters in France to commit train bombings and other violence that claimed more than 20 lives.

The French military footprint in former African colonies threatened by Islamic extremists has grown markedly under Hollande. French forces intervened in Mali in 2013 and today are present through much of West Africa.

It’s no surprise, analysts say, that the majority of today’s attackers in France have family ties to North and West Africa, not the Middle East.

Sons and daughters of these African immigrants now seek to answer the Daesh recruitment call at rates unseen in other European nations. An estimated 1,000 French citizens and residents mostly of African Muslim background have travelled to Syria, or been caught trying, to join Daesh forces ever since the nation — another former French possession — started to unravel five years ago.

The French recruiting influence in the Daesh power base of Raqqa reflects the common languages spoken there, Arabic and French. This, in turn, spurs the production of slick Francophone propaganda tailored specifically to insult and intimidate French eyes and ears. Daesh has directly threatened France, using native French speakers, in nine communiqués over the past three months.

One video released this month features a cappella song in French titled “My Vengeance” alongside footage of November’s attacks on Paris nightspots that killed 130 people. Its lyrics advise France-based followers to “shed the blood of the pigs ... destroy their souls. Make France quake.”

France’s response to the Nice carnage was to call up several thousand police and army reservists to join more than 100,000 security personnel already patrolling the streets and borders. Hollande also pledged to send more military advisers and artillery for the U.S.-led fight against Daesh in Iraq and Syria.

Some analysts doubt whether France’s military commitments play the critical role in spurring resident Muslims to answer the Daesh call. They say France’s fundamental challenge is that it hosts the greatest concentration of marginalized Muslims on the continent, many of whom view their adopted homeland as sinful and disrespectful toward Islamic traditions.

“Whether the guy who rented a truck in Nice was frightfully interested that Raqqa is being bombed, I don’t know,” said François Heisbourg, an analyst at a French think tank called the Foundation for Strategic Research.

He said targeting French population centres using homegrown militants offered the opportunity for “surefire results” against a land that represents, in the eyes of Daesh leaders, “a target of unbelief, of heresy, of apostasy.”

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Rest | Rest in Our Finances | Ken Sunoo

Rest in our Finances

Matthew 6:19-24
December 17, 2017

Review:  Last week did you find opportunities to give life rather than criticize?

Introduction: “Peace!” the angel announces at the birth of the Holy Child. “Glory to God in the highest heaven and on earth peace….”  So why so much stress in our lives? Maybe it’s not so much the work we are doing as much as the work behind our work. Maybe it’s not so much about what we are doing but why we are doing it. This Advent Jesus catches us trying to live at the speed of thought and slogging through unprecedented levels of anxiety, vitriol, and uncertainty. But he invites us to step aside and find his rest. “Come unto me, all you who are weary…”  Matthew 11:28

This week we focus on how we cannot buy our peace nor want more than our hearts desire in Jesus.  December is a time of year when our culture wants us to focus on being consumers.  God calls us to store up treasures in heaven.

Pray: LORD, Jesus, help us hear your word and find peace in you.  Amen.

Read:  Matthew 6:19-24

  1. What are “treasures on earth”?

    What are “treasures in heaven”?

  2. Rephrase verse 21, “for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also,” in your own words.
    Give examples of how you have seen this to be true.

  3. What does Jesus mean when he says your eye is the lamp of the body?

  4. Why do so many well-meaning people think they can serve two masters, God and wealth?

    Why is Jesus so clear and decisive in saying you cannot serve two masters?

  5. What effects how you see life and what is valuable?

  6. Describe a treasure or two that you are storing in heaven.

Application:  This week as you spend your wealth, time and talent, evaluate the reasoning behind your expenditures.

Pray:  Thank you for your words Jesus, that free us to focus on serving one master.  Thank you for being worthy to serve, generous in grace, loving us into your kingdom.  Protect us from our culture’s attempt to seduce us into consumerism.  Give us generous eyes and hearts that store up treasures in heaven.  Amen.

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by Helen Fryman Question: What about radiocarbon dating? Response: I asked several people who know about this field. (1.) C14 dating is very accurate for wood used up to about 4,000 years ago.This is only because it is well calibrated with objects of known age.

Y., reported today in the British journal Nature that some estimates of age based on carbon analyses were wrong by as much as 3,500 years.Dates up to this point in history are well documented for C14 calibration.For object over 4,000 years old the method becomes very unreliable for the following reason: Objects older then 4,000 years run into a problem in that there are few if any known artifacts to be used as the standard.The field of radiocarbon dating has become a technical one far removed from the naive simplicity which characterized its initial introduction by Libby in the late 1940's.It is, therefore, not surprising that many misconceptions about what radiocarbon can or cannot do and what it has or has not shown are prevalent among creationists and evolutionists - lay people as well as scientists not directly involved in this field.Example: wood found in a grave of known age by historically reliable documents is the standard for that time for the C14 content.


Anxiety Got You Down? Learn To Control It Now!

Stress is something everyone deals with, but there is no need for it to be unmanageable. Stress can evolve into anxiety if it’s not dealt with. Anxiety can harmfully strain the body not well. Read on how you can deal with anxiety effectively.

Say as many positive things as you can each day. Tell yourself you’re going to have a good day and remind yourself that everything is going to be alright. Do what you can to have the day end up that way.

Listening to music is a great way to deal with your anxiety.If you feel anxious, start playing your favorite music. Focus on each word in the music. This can distract you from your anxiety, making you less anxious. Keeping your mind occupied can really help deal with anxiety.

Consistently think positive thoughts. Make it a habit to remind yourself of these things before you go to sleep and again first thing in the morning. The positive feelings will keep negative ones away and help you deal with anxiety.

Consider trying amino acid treatment to cure your only hope. Many individuals find they are deficient in certain nutrients and that their bodies do not produce enough serotonin.

A diet contains many helpful vitamins and nutrients which your body needs to stay healthy.

Pay close attention to your breathing when you feel stressed. You will experience a shortness of breath which can later become varied and probably taking erratic breaths.It’s easy for you to forget how to breathe correctly when anxiety has a lot of you. Focus on proper breathing if you have an anxiety attack.

Talk to someone about what you’re going through no matter who it is. It is going to intensify your feelings if you try to keep too much bottled in. Your anxiety is sure to lessen when you share it.

Talk to someone you know about what you’re going through no matter who it is.Keeping feelings bottled up will only make things worse. Sharing your feelings makes you feel a lot better while reducing anxiety.

Getting enough good quality sleep is a critical tool in fighting back against anxiety. Physical and mental difficulties increase when you do not get enough sleep, and this adds to your anxiety. It should be a common practice to achieve 7-8 hours of sleep each night.

As this article just said, anxiety and stress are hard to deal with but cannot be helped sometimes. It may not be possible to rid ourselves of them, but they can be managed. Put all your knowledge into action to help resolve your anxiety disorder.

No matter who you find, seek assistance to discuss your problems. A support system is very important to someone who is suffering from anxiety. A friend might be able to help you find solutions and talking about your problems will make you feel much better.


Friday, June 5, 2015

Between a Rock and a Hard Place

I take alot of joy in Disney movies, especially the ones that were released when I was young; it's like a time portal into my childhood. But it was only as an adult that I began to really think critically about the stories and the messages contained in them. It's pretty easy to see that most of the Disney princesses emerge from a daddy-daughter relationship. Freud focused his theory of the father complex on ambivalent feelings for the father on the part of the male child, as an aspect of the Oedipus complex.  But according to Jung,  females are also able to develop a father complex, which might be either positive or negative.

Let's start with The Little Mermaid. Ariel is the youngest daughter of the Sea King, and true to Andersen's text, she is enamored with the world above the water. Her father forbids her to have any contact with it, so is forced to hide her fascination with it, as well as her extensive collection of artifacts salvaged from sunken ships. When her father becomes aware of her continued interest with humans, and her new interest in a particular human, he sets out to eradicate this rebellious streak in her. I think this scene is the most authentic in communicating the nature of their relationship because the dialogue sounds authentic: Ariel's pouty "I don't care" is the favorite uttering of sixteen year old girls. But furthermore, the symbolism of Ariel hiding behind the Prince Eric effigy at first, and later desperately trying to protect it (she's literally between a rock and hard place) represents the classic struggle of a daughter to distance herself from the central male figure in her life only to seek a new one.

She sacrifices her voice (much less painful than her tongue, as in the original story) to the Sea Witch in exchange for legs, so that she can go ashore, find the prince, and (silently) charm him. In the age of third wave feminism, it's a pretty horrible message that in order to make a man love her, a woman should be voiceless.
Ariel's voice, and tail, is restored when her time on land runs out. As stipulated in her contract with the Sea Witch, she is now her property, and we see her slowly devolve into a sea urchin.
Prince Eric defeats the Sea Witch, and the other sea urchins are restored to their original forms (mermaids and mermen who also defaulted on their deals), but Ariel is still confined by her fins. It's only through her father's power that she is able to return to land to reunite with her soon-to-be husband.
I guess if you want to be sentimental, you could say that King Triton is unselfishly allowing his daughter to live her dream, even though it pains him. But it must also be noted that he is sacrificing his power over her; earlier he told her as long as she lives under his ocean, she is to obey his rules. She traded in one kingdom for another.

All this being said, I still canot be trusted with the remote control during a viewing of this movie; it rapidly devolves into a loop of Part of Your World and a (bad) one woman karaoke show.

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Why is it important for Indian paintings to represent the village life?

Paintings are a form of expression, a form of capturing the emotions and the daily lifestyle of people so that it will be effectively reproduced for years to come. However, since times immemorial, paintings have also been able to reflect the culture and the society as well as ensure that people actually have a good knowledge about everything that is going on in their country. With that being said, it takes a lot for people to realize the value of good quality paintings, particularly by masters such as Thota Vaikuntam.

The contemporary Indian art scenario may seem to be in its nascent stage but it is certainly something that has been picking up pace for years to come. Of course, people like Thota Vaikuntam have been able to contribute on their own, creating paintings that not only get into the Indian galleries, but also ensure that it can creep into the foreign galleries as well. This is the reason why the artist has been able to showcase the very best of his paintings in various galleries across the world, and also takes pride into the kind of paintings that he has been able to bring about in India for generations to come.


Friday, March 18, 2011

The Trans-en-Provence, France UFO Incident

Left to right: Dr. Jacques F. Vallee. Dr. Michel Bounias and the witness, Mr. Renato Nicolai

The case was investigated by the Groupe d'Etudes des Phénomènes Aérospatiaux Non-identifiés (GEPAN), or Unidentified Aerospace Phenomena Study Group, established in 1977 within the National Center for Space Studies (CNES) in Toulouse, the French counterpart of NASA. (The functions of GEPAN were reorganized in 1988 into the Service d'Expertise des Phénomènes de Rentrées Atmosphériques or SEPRA). The primary investigator was Jean-Jacques Velasco, the current head of SEPRA.

The witness was the farmer Renato Nicolai, 55, on whose property the UFO landed and then took-off almost immediately. Thinking that it was a military experimental device, Nicolai notified the local gendarmes on the following day. The gendarmes interviewed Nicolai and collected soil and plant samples from the landing site within 24 hours of the occurrence, notifying GEPAN on January 12 as part of a cooperation agreement for UFO investigation between the two agencies. Further collection of samples and measurements of the site were undertaken by the GEPAN team, and the samples were thoroughly analyzed by several government laboratories.

The first detailed report on the case was published by GEPAN in 1983 in its "Technical Note No. 16, Inquiry 81/01, Analysis of a Trace."

The Trans-en-Provence Case

3. Trace quantities were found of phosphate and zinc.

6. Biochemical analysis showed numerous differences between vegetation samples obtained close to the site and those more distant. - 'The UFO Evidence: Volume II: A Thirty-Year Report' - Richard H. Hall

Surface evidence magnified

Renato Nicolai's Testimony

"My attention was drawn to a small noise, a kind of little whistling. I turned around and I saw, in the air, a ship which was just about the height of a pine tree at the edge of my property. This ship was not turning but was descending toward the ground. I only heard a slight whistling. I saw no flames, neither underneath or around the ship.

"While the ship was continuing to descend, I went closer to it, heading toward a little cabin. I was able to see very well above the roof. From there I saw the ship standing on the ground.

"At that moment, the ship began to emit another whistling, a constant, consistent whistling. Then it took off and once it was at the height of the trees, it took off rapidly... toward the northeast. As the ship began to lift off, I saw beneath it four openings from which neither smoke nor flames were emitting. The ship picked up a little dust when it left the ground.

"I was at that time about 30 meters [100 feet] from the landing site. I thereafter walked towards the spot and I noticed a circle about two meters [7 feet] in diameter. At certain spots on the curve of the circle, there were tracks (or traces).

"The ship was in the form of two saucers upside down, one against the other. It must have been about 1.5 meters [5 feet] high. It was the color of lead. The ship had a border or type of brace around its circumference. Underneath the brace, as it took off, I saw two kinds of round pieces which could have been landing gear or feet. There were also two circles which looked like trap doors. The two feet, or landing gear, extended about 20 centimeters [8 inches] beneath the body of the whole ship."

The samples of soil and wild alfalfa collected from the landing site, as well as the control samples from varying distances from the epicenter, were subjected to a number of analyses: physico-chemical analysis at the SNEAP laboratory, electronic diffraction studies at Toulouse University, mass spectrometry by ion bombardment at the University of Metz, and biochemical analysis of the vegetable samples at the National Institute of Agronomy Research (INRA), among others. The findings report included the following statements:

"Traces were still perceptible 40 days after the event.

"There was a strong mechanical pressure forced (probably the result of a heavy weight) on the surface.

"A thermatic heating of the soil, perhaps consecutive to or immediately following the shock, the value of which did not exceed 600 degrees.

"The chlorophyll pigment in the leaf samples was weakened from 30 to 50 percent... The young leaves withstood the most serious losses, evolving toward the content and composition more characteristic of old leaves."

"The action of nuclear irradiation does not seem to be analogous with the energy source implied with the observed phenomenon; on the other hand, a specific intensification of the transformation of chlorophyll... could be tied to the action of a type of electric energy field.

"On the biochemical level, the analysis was made on the entirety of the factors of photosynthesis, lipids, sugars and amino acids. There were many differences between those samples further from the spot of the landing and those that were closer to the spot.

"It was possible to qualitatively show the occurrence of an important event which brought with it deformations of the terrain caused by mass, mechanics, a heating effect, and perhaps certain transformations and deposits of trace minerals.

Elapsed Time Event Comments

0-3 secs Witness first sees the object which appears to be above two tall conifers approx 35 m from the impact point. Distance estimate is based on map and statement that the cabin is 35 m away from impact point; comparison of that distance on the map[8] with the distance to the tree suggests an additional 35 m to the tree.

3 secs Object strikes the ground with a sound like a stone falling. The motion from the trees to the impact point is fast and continuous. Assuming the distance from the impact point to be 35m for the top of the tree, and assuming the altitude to be above the tree (stated to be "dozens of meters high"[9],[10]); because of the error in translation, resolved to 10 m, we take 10 m as the altitude of the object; the distance traversed between first sight and impact is therefore 14 m.

The following assume a constant deceleration:

The deceleration based on a 3 second time to cross this distance is -0.32G from a speed of 34 kph.

According to Velasco, an upper limit to the weight based on the ground trace is 700 kg. To accomplish the noted deceleration at that weight would require a thrust of 7,171 kg.

4-25 secs Object is on the ground and the witness is continuing to move to a new location. Assuming 8 secs to walk 10m (a reasonably brisk walk), walking 30 m takes 24 secs, of which it is assumed 1-2 secs are used while object is descending, since the report refers to "while it was continuing to come down, I went closer by walking".

25-28 secs Witness observes the object on the ground. According to the statement: "several seconds"; also, "From that position I clearly saw the device resting on the ground."

28-35 secs Object lifts from the ground, tilts, and departs. Altitude appears to be that of the tops of the trees, here estimated to be 10 m ("it lifted off... reaching a point above the trees, it left at high speed").

It took from 1-3 secs to accomplish this.

The following assume a constant acceleration / deceleration:

If it took 3 sec, then it accelerated at approximately 0.45 G for 1.5 sec to 5 m and then decelerated at -0.45G to 10 m; the thrust required in the acceleration phase is 10,204 kg assuming a 700 kg weight.

If it took 1 sec, it accelerated at approximately 4G for 0.5 sec to 5 m and then decelerated at -4G for 0.5 sec to 10 m; the thrust required in the acceleration phase is 91,840 kg, assuming a 700 kg weight.

The GEPAN account differs somewhat, claiming "it rose vertically over several meters, tilted above the platform, continued to rise in this position and disappeared in the sky." Hopefully "several" is 10 or so.

Description Of The Trace Evidence

The trace was found by the witness immediately after the departure of the object. The trace was circular, 2.4 m in diameter, and had the form of a ring, 0.2 m in width (it is claimed that there is a "crown" to the trace which is only 0.1 m in width. Note that the witness reported the object surrounded by a shelf approximately 0.15 m in width.

Photographs show the trace as lighter in color than the surrounding dirt. Vegetation remains (leaves and sticks) from the edges of the path where the object landed are seen to cross the trace (as of the next day). There does not appear to be any preferential orientation for this material, nor does it appear affected by pressure or heating. In combination, this indicates the possibility that either a) the force which produced the trace had no outward and no inward components, or b) the material was swept back over the trace either at or after the object departure. Note that the witness mentioned the object's departure as having raised some dust.

The soil of the trace is lighter than neighboring soil, appears to be slightly raised or crusty, and bears radial striations. These striations are not perfectly radial, but are slightly curved in a clockwise direction, and are slightly irregular. The trace ring shows these formations most prominently on the directly east and west sides of the ring. The north side of the trace shows a slightly lower degree of the same effect.

The width of the ring as photographed and diagrammed shows no notable deviation, nor does the circularity of the ring show any notable deviation. - GEPAN - "Technical Note No. 16, Inquiry 81/01, Analysis of a Trace"

Overall Conclusion

The Trans-en-Provence UFO observation lasted under a minute. However, in that minute, information was gained by an alert witness and extracted by focused and experienced investigators which allow an analyst to form and validate hypotheses about the nature of the object.

The Trans-en-Provence UFO was able to dissipate considerable kinetic energy without affecting the ground beneath it. This may have resulted in the observed "whistling" sound, which indicates a motion of air away from the object. The object was then able to create close to 600 degrees C of ground heating on departure, despite the apparent insufficiency of mere thrust pressure to produce those temperatures. It then departed after tilting, and did not produce any further effects on the environment at that time.

Many previous observations have indicated that the UFO rim is a source of energetic phenomena. The Trans-en-Provence case continues to support that pattern.

"The UFO Evidence: Volume II: A Thirty-Year Report" - Richard H. Hall - 2000
Jean-Jacques Velasco - "Report on the Analysis of Anomalous Physical Traces: The 1981 Trans-en-Provence UFO Case," - 1990
Michel Bounias - "Research Note: Further Quantification of Distance-Related Effects in the Trans-en-Provence Case," - 1995
Purchase your copy at Mothman Dynasty: Chicago's Winged Humanoids

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'Phantoms and Monsters'


The word “candle” comes from the Latin verb “candeo” which means “to shine”. Using candles as a means of showing your devotion to the Holy Father or as a symbol of enlightenment and brilliance amidst darkness is an antediluvian practice. Devoted Catholics have been using different types of candles for various religious purposes since the inception of this very religion. Through lighting a candle in front of the Holy Father, His Son, and other angels, the followers of this religion offer their requests and prayers to God. Candles are also used as a symbol of benevolent influences so that evil devious forces that can bring harm and temptation to an individual are kept at bay.

In Catholicism, candles are used for multifarious occasions including Baptism, Holy Communion, Confirmation, etc. The shape, size, and even colour of the candles vary significantly from one ceremony to another. However, the material used for all of them is beeswax.

Candles for Different Occasions:

The Baptismal/Paschal/Easter Candle: This candle can be easily distinguished from the others because of its sui generis size and colourful decorations. A cross with five cloves and the year are generally imprinted on these candles. For the occasion of Easter, this candle signifies the resurrection of Jesus from the abysmal darkness to the illumination of sacredness. After this candle has been used for Easter or Baptism, they are lit throughout the year as a reminder of that Holy Sacrament. The imageries of this candle narrate the story of a new soul joining the God’s family.

The Altar Candles: Devoted Christians have been using altar candles since the 12th The sole purpose of altar candles is to represent Lord Jesus as the eternal light of the world. However, altar candles also represent the stern realities. In the beginning, these candles were generally used in the catacombs where they one altar candle was the only source of light.

Advent candles: Advent candles were a part of the ancient Germanic tradition and it was later adopted in Catholicism. Advent candles symbolise one thousand years in the history of salvation i.e. from the time of Adam and Eve to the birth of Christ.

Votive candles: Votive candles (also known as Devotional candles) are mainly used for prayers and offerings in congregations. The light of the votive candle represents a burnt sacrifice, reparation of vices, contrition, and adoration. Among all such candles, votive candles are used the most frequently in Christian churches.

Colours of Candles:

Despite being used for different occasions, candles also come in different colours that signify different aspects of Catholicism. Usually these candles come in:

  • White: White candles epitomise the harmony, veracity, and wholeness of a spirit.
  • Red: Red candles signify the eternal love and adoration along with fortitude to fight against the evil forces of nature.
  • Blue: Deep blue coins are a symbol of laughter and happiness where the royal blue coins symbolise royalty.

Candles have an enlightening as well as an emphatic presence in Catholicism. With different colours and imageries they not only signify the benevolent qualities in the devout Christians but also help them connect with the Almighty spiritually.


How to motivate your sales team

Selling is tough. Selling is an important stage in any business. Selling is demanding. This is why keeping your sales team motivated is extremely important and will directly affect the results obtained.

Not everyone is motivated by the same things, which is why it is important to have different ways of moving your team forward. It is important to understand your team members, who they are, what they like and what they want.

  1. Commissions - unfortunately a fat salary will not always motivate your sales team. However, a good commission structure will usually allow your sales team to thrive. Make them want to go for the big fish, or fight for that deal. If your commissions are capped, uncap them. Remember the sky is the limit for your sales team; don’t place a glass ceiling on it.
  2. Peer pressure – the one thing that sales people cannot stand is to be number two. Make their numbers, quotas and stats public. Allow everyone to have access to the team’s results. Don’t keep them private.
  3. Daily praise – Sales people are known as sharks, but really they need recognition. Don’t be shy on your praises, when a job is well done, say it. Make those praises public.
  4. Encourage teamwork – build winning teams by having everyone support and help each other. Don’t force the individual work, but place more focus on teamwork. Encourage your team to help each other, to share their best practices. Reward the team not just the individuals.
  5. Daily huddles – daily meetings are overrated, they tend to last too long, not cover what is actually planned and 7 out of 10 meetings are not actually essential. However, daily huddles are fantastic. 10 minutes max, keep them positive and upbeat, have your team share their experience, feelings and plans for the day. Start the day on a bright note!
  6. Create personal goals – Don’t just set goals for each department, set goals with each member of the team. Understand who they are and where they can be. Set goals with your team members, not for them. Allow them to set their own goals.
  7. Provide coaching – Sales people can get quickly demotivated when they realize that they have a lack of knowledge somewhere. Don’t let them! Understand their results and search for their weakness, then provide regular coaching to fill the gap.
  8. Always support your team – whether it is technical support, more information your team needs, always be available. Your team needs to feel supported and protected by their manager. People work better when they fell they are doing it for someone that has their back. There are many different ways to motivate your sales team, whether is via a public award board or a daily positive email, the importance is that your sales team feels acknowledged, respected and part of a team, not just a number.


kal kal - 1 year ago 143
Java Question

Java Timer vs ExecutorService?

I have code where I schedule a task using

. I was looking around and saw
can do the same. So this question here, have you used Timer and
to schedule tasks, what is the benefit of one using over another?

Also wanted to check if anyone had used the
class and ran into any issues which the
solved for them.

Answer Source

According to Java Concurrency in Practice:

  • Runtime exceptions thrown in TimerTask kill that one thread, thus making Timer dead :-( ... i.e. scheduled tasks will not run anymore. ScheduledThreadExecutor not only catches runtime exceptions, but it lets you handle them if you want (by overriding afterExecute method from ThreadPoolExecutor). Task which threw exception will be canceled, but other tasks will continue to run.

If you can use ScheduledThreadExecutor instead of Timer, do so.

One more thing... while ScheduledThreadExecutor isn't available in Java 1.4 library, there is a Backport of JSR 166 (java.util.concurrent) to Java 1.2, 1.3, 1.4, which has the ScheduledThreadExecutor class.


List of virtual tables

The “virtual” tables are generated by the Envision runtime itself, instead of reflecting tabular input files. Here, we list the virtual tables supported by Envision.

Calendar tables

read "/sample/Lokad_Items.tsv"
read "/sample/Lokad_Orders.tsv" as Orders

Week.sold := sum(Orders.NetAmount)
show linechart "Weekly sales" a1f4 unit: "$" with Week.sold

These tables are all populated with the same date range that matches the full range of the input data, as defined by the read statements that specify a Date column. If a filter when is applied, these tables are filtered accordingly.

Files table

The Files table contains the list of all the files that have been captured by the read statements in the Envision script. This table is intended to support the design data integrity checks where, for example, files are tested against conditions related to their expected sizes.

show table "My Files" with

The fields are defined as follow:


“Moving and being moved: More-than-walking and talking on pilgrimage walks in the Manx landscape”

Avril Maddrell

Journal: Culture and Religion Volume 14, Issue 1, March 2013, pages 63-77.

Citizen science in action – Manx Y-DNA Study

Citizen science is a new term that has been in use since the 1990’s but has really only evolved to become popular in the last few years. It is used to describe  systematic works of scientific research that are carried out, not within the formal academic or business research structures, but by amateur individuals or teams of private individuals operating in a new area of scientific research and within informal networks, increasingly internet-based.

In a sense all the major scientists before the 20th century were citizen scientists, men like Isaac Newton, Benjamin Franklin and Charles Darwin, for example, were all amateurs and self-funded. More recent examples of citizen science projects however include large scale astronomical observation projects and public nature and bird watching surveys.

Genetic Genealogy

One field of rapidly evolving citizen science participation and leadership is that of genetic genealogy. This research area was started in the early 2000’s with the emergence of several fledgling DNA testing companies offering DNA testing services to the general public.  The first obvious application for these relatively affordable tests was in the area of genealogy, where it very quickly became apparent that DNA analysis, within and across families, was a very fruitful and effective way of bridging gaps in family history research where physical paper records no longer survived or indeed never existed.

The nature of DNA research in genealogy is that an individual’s results are only meaningful when compared to other possibly related people. This meant that it became an early necessity that DNA data publication- and sharing- mechanisms were clearly needed to be provided and available to all, and the internet was the obvious medium to use.  Several commercial DNA and research organisations positioned themselves to provide public online DNA databases and this created the impetus for a massive expansion in private, citizen-science research.

The dramatic expansion in the development of new DNA tests by commercial companies in the last 10 years has in fact been largely been carried out in a synergistic fashion by the worldwide amateur genetic genealogy community.

The process of expanding the knowledge of the human DNA genetic tree has been a partnership between the commercial technology providers and the public buying their DNA tests and researching their own genetic ancestry.

The reality is also that testing companies cannot do research into the DNA tree on their own. They need as large and diverse a population as possible to use their tests in order to develop and validate them.

This research process also has had to have been an iterative one. Commercial DNA tests are developed based on the knowledge of the detailed structure of the human DNA genetic tree known at the time of test development.  These tests are bought and used by the public and, through the testing, publication and analysis by genetic genealogists, new insights into further detail of the genetic tree are gained. This new knowledge is then incorporated into the succeeding new technology test, and so on. For example, if someone with an unknown DNA marker/mutation is not tested and that marker thus not identified, then the testing companies will not know that such a marker exists and not offer a commercial test for it!

For genetic genealogists researching their own position on the Y-chromosome genetic tree (Y-DNA research represents the most popular area of public attention) this has become an ongoing journey of discovery. The structure of the Y-chromosome DNA tree is proving to be highly complex and detailed and new and more powerful Y-DNA tests are still coming on to the market.

All of the DNA testing that is carried out by genetic genealogists is paid for out of their own pockets. The tests are provided at commercial, or slightly subsidised, prices by the testing companies and there is no public or commercial funding of these activities. Thus the whole funding of this substantial area of research is paid for by the participants.

Analysis Networks

So, whilst commercial companies provide the means whereby those people who are interested can test various elements of their own or family’s DNA, a large part of the analysis and dissemination of the results of such testing is carried out by informal networks of private individuals, the citizen scientists.

Today there are now some 6,000 separate Y-DNA research projects worldwide, all run by private individuals, the vast majority of whom had no prior technical expertise in DNA analysis and testing before they took on the project responsibility.  A large number of these projects are focussed on just one family name or a group of related family names. Other projects just concentrate on specific areas of the Y-DNA tree and provide unique direction and impetus for more research in each particular area

The skills involved in managing and analysing the DNA data generated by these projects all have had to be developed by the project members as their projects have developed. However, the powerfully cooperative nature involved in these informal genetic genealogy networks means that there are many individuals that are generous in providing help and advice to anyone else who requests it.

All Individuals within the network possess their own personal blend of mathematical, analytical, computing and scientific skills. But inevitably some acknowledged experts with particular skills or knowledge emerge into view and become a resource for everyone else in the network. This is citizen science in action.

Manx Y-DNA Study

John Creer started the Manx Y-DNA study in August 2010.  This 5-6 year long project is engaged in carrying out the Y-DNA analysis of the male members of the 120 original Manx families known to be living on the island in the 1500’s and before. It is intended that the results of this study will identify the early origins of these old Manx families before they settled on the IOM, their genetic connections with each other and families/tribes from neighbouring Ireland and Scotland and the likely timing of such connections. Early results from this work are already revealing new, and sometimes unexpected, insights into the history of these families in a way that no other scientific or scholarly approach could achieve.

Some 70% of the indigenous Manx population, as represented by these 120 families, have already been tested, either in part or fully. Another 2-3 years is required to complete recruitment and testing. This will also allow the study team time to take advantage of the rapid and dramatic improvements in testing methods and the new evolving knowledge of the detailed, low-level structures of the Y-DNA genetic tree.

So far nearly 170 men have been involved in this study and the majority of them have paid for their own DNA tests, so the private investment in this work amounts to around £25,000 so far. During the last three years a number of Manx cultural, political and business organisations have been approached to provide any level of financial or moral support for this unique Manx historical research, but so far nothing has been forthcoming. Thus, it is a telling commentary on our present times that such a ground-breaking and unique piece of research into Manx history is, so far, privately funded.

Manx Study Team Skills

John has a science degree and a wide-ranging business background in the pharmaceuticals industry, encompassing marketing, information management and IT project management roles. Since retirement he has been engaged in extensive Manx family history research and Y-DNA testing and analysis of his own Manx paternal family line. All of these skills and knowledge have now been put to further effective use as the citizen scientist leading this unique work.

Recently Mark Jost (Watterson) has joined the study as co-administrator. Mark is an American who became involved in genetic genealogy in order to try and learn more about his biological paternal line, after he was informed by his mother later in his adult life that he was a Non-Paternal Event (NPE) child of his biological mother and was paternal adopted by marriage prior to his birth. Mark approached the Manx Study as his Y-DNA profile was close to one of the Manx men already tested. With time and further testing, it has now become clear that Mark is the direct descendant of a Manx man who immigrated to the USA around 1700 and settled there. Mark has a business degree and runs his own computer business, and has utilized his computing and mathematical skills to become one of the leading citizen scientists in the field of genetic genealogy, accomplished in using sophisticated analysis techniques to determine the ages of populations of men, based on their Y-DNA profiles. Thus with his Manx ancestry Mark is ideally suited to playing a major role in the Manx Y-DNA study.

In due course, it may become appropriate to involve other people with other skills to play a role in the latter stages of analysis and interpretation of the results. This is typical however of how a citizen science-based project works, using informal knowledge networks of amateur experts bringing their own blend of personal abilities when required.

The Manx Y-DNA study (www.manxdna.co.uk) is a prime example of how the work of citizen scientists can undertake new and ground-breaking research outside the formal, institutionalised research structures.

The Literatures and Cultures of the Irish Sea

Series Editor’s Introduction from John Brannigan

Irish Sea Studies’ is a term with some purchase in marine biology, archaeology, and ancient history, but might it have significance for the study of the literary and cultural interrelations between the constituent nations and regions of the British Isles? The archaeologist, V.G. Childe, once described the Irish Sea as ‘the natural centre of a province whose several parts it unites rather than divides’. This series hosts eight lectures by major scholars on literary and cultural transactions across the Irish Sea, and which focus on the Irish Sea as an ‘inner waterway’ of the British and Irish Isles. This has been the subject of considerable debate in recent literary scholarship, following John Kerrigan’s Archipelagic English (2008), and Christopher Harvie’s A Floating Commonwealth (2008), both of which proposed new ‘archipelagic’ and ‘coastal’ models for understanding the literatures of the isles. The lectures gather together, and make publicly available in downloadable audio and text formats, new work by major scholars who are currently researching maritime, coastal, and portal themes in the literatures and cultures around the Irish Sea.

Reconceiving the British Isles: The Literature of the Archipelago

Series Editor’s Introduction from John Brannigan

The growing strength of contemporary scholarship in Scottish, Irish and Welsh literatures in English in the twentieth century demands new critical histories of twentieth-century literature in the British Isles which reflect contemporary critical perspectives, and which avoid an Anglo-centric narrative. Such an archipelagic approach has been developed in recent decades in relation to seventeenth-century literature and history, but has rarely been attempted in relation to twentieth-century literature, the study of which has been dominated firstly by Anglo-centric narratives (in which Yeats and Joyce were seen as exemplary of metropolitan modernism, for instance), and later by national narratives (in which Yeats and Joyce were seen predominantly in relation to Irish national traditions). This series of lectures is designed to provide exemplary archipelagic narratives of twentieth-century literature, reflecting the post-devolutionary cultural contexts of the study of English in the British Isles, while remaining sensitive to what is distinctive about the linguistic, cultural and political histories of literature in each of the constituent parts of the archipelago.


Prototyping: A User’s Manual

This post first appeared on www.bolser.co.uk

A digital designer’s toolset is constantly evolving. It sometimes feels as though there is a new time-saving, innovative software release every week. Many of the new releases fall flat, and others have the potential to become an essential part of a designer’s process, or even life. Prototyping tools — software which allows a designer to fabricate and imitate digital products such as apps and websites without code — are no different, most of the time.

Here I discuss, compare and critique some of the different prototyping tools I’ve been lucky enough to work with and try out over the last two-or-so years. Some used in R&D projects, others in client work.

I can’t code to save my life! This is something I want to change, but that’s the fact. Framer.js is a code based prototyping tool. It uses Coffee Script, a compiled version of JavaScript. Coffee Script is surprisingly easy to grasp, even for me. With the vast range of resources and tutorials available, from Framer themselves and various other sources, it’s easy to cobble together an interaction.

As far as I’m aware, it’s difficult to create a full app prototype, as you may as well just build it if you’re going to prototype it in any form of code. However, Framer.js is amazing for creating precise and accurate animations using code. Animations which can be interacted with as if they were created for real — if you can figure out the code!

Framer also offers a viewer application for iOS, which opens up the possibility of user testing and presentations.

If you want to create a short screen sequence, and prototype it to an extremely high fidelity, and — more importantly — if you’re comfortable with code, Framer.js is the tool for you!

Principle, for me, is the sweet spot. A lower fidelity of animation and interaction design than you might have in Framer.js, or in JavaScript, as you’re not controlling any elements with code. But, a much higher fidelity than apps like Invision of Marvel. You have the ability to control animations, timing and transitions to a relatively decent standard.

I went from no prior Principle experience, to creating a massive prototype in a matter of days. It’s incredibly easy to get to grips with. You have the ability to sync your entire Sketch file with Principle or copy over elements directly using your clipboard. It’s pretty cool stuff! Great for supercharging your prototyping process.

The downside I found, is that Principle isn’t as up to date as it could be. Principle works with other applications such as Sketch, which often adds new features, features I take advantage of to supercharge my design process. Principle is yet to support some of these newer features, which often screws up direct Sketch imports. (An example of this would be using symbol overrides in Sketch, Principle reverts the overrides back to their default state).

Adobe Experience Design
Formerly known as XD, Adobe Experience Design is an all-in-one design and prototyping tool. Strictly speaking, this software still is in BETA. The software is still being built, and there are open channels to communicate to the software developers, so they can implement features that designers want and need in the future. Potentially, this software has the potential to be king.

In its current form, Adobe Experience Design is actually pretty slick, for what it is. In the past, I’ve used it to quickly throw together wireframes and link the screens together as a shareable prototype. XD did this really well, I was able to distribute the prototype for multiple testing rounds and get some really useful feedback. The prototyping feature is very smooth, with the ability to create links by dragging components and artboards together using magical blue lines.

I was able to distribute the prototype for multiple testing rounds

As for design, XD’s tool set as it stands is slightly hit and miss. There are some great built-in features, features like the repeat grid function (the ability to duplicate content in a grid format). And the ability to drag images directly into masks from finder or windows explorer. But, on the other hand, XD feels like a stripped back version of Photoshop, having a limited set of design tools to utilise. You are limited to a set of basic shapes and lines, the pen tool and a text input. Not to mention the lack of guides!

As it stands, I use XD for wireframes and rapid prototyping. I wouldn’t use it to create any form of high fidelity design, I’ll stick to Sketch.

Invision & Marvel
If your goal is speed, to quickly upload, link and distribute screens, InVision or Marvel might be for you. Both products are one and the same, almost identical in terms functionality. In our experience, we’ve found InVision invaluable to our process. Being able to push design changes to an existing InVision document at the click of a button has saved us some serious time.

These designs can then be distributed internally and to clients. Who then can either flick through the screens with their arrow keys or navigate their way through the entire document as a hot-spot prototype. The hotspots, for the most part, are quite basic, with a limited number of gestures at your disposal. (Tap, double tap, and swiping). All of which have to be performed over the required hotspot, otherwise the user will be taken to the next screen in the series, by default.

Personally, I would not recommend either for User Testing. Due to Invision’s ‘casual’ usability, a test participant could swipe through numerous screens accidentally, or even find themselves back in the dashboard view, disrupting the flow. (Which has actually happened in the middle of a testing round…)

Kite Compositor
The new kid on the block, Kite Compositor is a UI animation and prototyping application which might just be the rival for the long-standing Principle. Literally released days before writing this post, it is being praised by many designers.

Apart from a slightly different interface, it’s hard to distinguish Kite from Principle. In terms of functionality, there really isn’t any difference within the app itself, so I don’t need to go over the amazing in-app prototyping abilities I mentioned earlier.

Kite lacks a native mobile viewer app, an app which allows you to view your designs directly on a device. So you’re unable to use Kite for any form of mobile user testing, which is a big drawback. Kite becomes almost useless as a testing tool, rather just an interaction prototyping tool.

No application is flawless, there isn’t a prototyping tool which trumps all the others in the market.

Each app has it’s own use case; for speed and topline prototyping without much fidelity. For example, consider Adobe Experience Design or the web applications Marvel or Invision. All of which offer rapid prototyping using hotspots and links, and can be quickly shoved into an app viewer for user testing or demos.

If you’re after some a little more robust, controlled animations and interactions, consider using Principle or Kite. The trade off for the higher fidelity is time. Depending on the size of the prototype, and the complexity of the animations, Kite and Principle can be very time-consuming. For user testing, I’d personally recommend Principle — mainly because Kite doesn’t offer a viewer app.

For detailed interactions, not an entire app or a section of an app, I’d suggest Framer.js, especially if you’re comfortable with code.

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Tag Archives: Teaching and Learning

The Great Paradox: Education in a Changing World (a reflection)

Education is in a constant state of change, yet it can also be stagnant. The system is both a product of its successes and failures. As global education systems evolve, we continue to grow the innovators of tomorrow while also recycling the sins of the past.

Education systems will only be as good as their worst champions, yet change and growth, no matter how slowly, still occurs. The cycle of constant change manifests itself in opposing ways. Early adopters embrace opportunities to try new strategies and reflect on innovative practice, while those who are sceptics of change set up camp in what has always worked for them, what they believe to be tried, tested and true. It is necessary for both of these to coexist. The early adopters keep us moving forward, while the campers slow us down and make us take pause, lest we make a hasty decisionhttp://philstubbsquotes.files.wordpress.com/2012/09/when-the-winds-of-change-blow.jpeg and move forward too quickly.

As educational theorists digest and publish the latest brain research, translate it into pedagogical learning theory and filter it down to the school or practice level, schools shift to keep up with the pace and demands of change; or, they throw their hands in the air and spin in a vicious circle, unsure of which way to go. The more we learn, the more choices we have. Choice can either motivate us or it can paralyse us.

In the midst of all this change and stagnation is the learner – the one constant, yet also the greatest variable of all. Without the learner, our purpose as educators would be lost. We do what we do for the learner. Yet, no two learners are exactly alike, and each learner is constantly going through his/her own change – physical, intellectual, social, cultural and emotional.

The Great Paradox of Education is both exciting and exhausting. Whether we acknowledge we are or not, all educators are agents of change. We respond to the changing nature of the learner and inevitably, as the learner changes in a changing world, the very nature of learning changes too. It is the learners we teach who grow up and enter the world and make their contribution through science, technology, creativity, innovation….the list goes on! These learners, knowingly or not, drive our change as the education system responds to what what they give back or take from the world we help to prepare them for. The noble calling of education is alive and well and I am so grateful to be able to exist in this ever shifting paradigm, navigating the waters of child development,  innovation, pedagogy, reflection…and change. How about you?

Playing With Time: Friend or Foe

Time has a way of marching on in spite of us. In schools, the clock on the wall is either friend or foe. Time can propel us or it can paralyze us. I’ve had a life long love-hate relationship with time. I’ve tried to master it, manage it, conserve it, speed it up, slow it down…the list goes on. A wise mentor used to laugh at me and tell me that I needed to be more playful with time. Play with time? How can you play with something that is always moving, never still? While I couldn’t see it all those years ago, my mentor was right. You really can play with time. It’s in the very forward motion of time that the beauty of time playfulness lies.  At that point in time, he knew something I did not: time is only scarce if we think it is. I used to think of time as my enemy – it grinded me and wore me down as I constantly tried to battle and slay it. There was never enough time, and worse still, there was no way  for me to somehow get more of this fleeting trickster.

In my own inquiry into how to play with time, I discovered a great book by Elizabeth Saunders called, The Three Secrets of Time Investment. While this book is not written specifically for educators, and my motivation to read it was more personal than professional, I still found myself reading the book through my educator lens and thinking about how Saunders’ principles could be applied to teaching and learning. Saunders proposes that time should not be managed. Instead, she challenges the reader to look at time from an investment perspective. Ultimately, we can choose how we invest our time. Instead of spending time, we need to invest our time. When we look at time from a perspective of scarcity, we are in fact hoarding it. If we always think there will never be enough time, there never will be enough time. However, when we look at time from the perspective of abundance then, and only then, can we have a magical play date with time. Here are some of my key applications of Saunders’ time investment “secrets” to an educational setting:

1. Accept the fact that time is finite. Every school day has a definitive beginning and end and there are only so many hours in a school day, and so many days in a school year. You can’t do it ALL. Face it and move on. Rome wasn’t built in a day and neither is a learner, so why do we try to cram everything under the sun into a school day? The more time you spend on one discipline, activity, etc., the less time you can spend on

― Elizabeth Saunders

another. A typical school day is approximately 6 hours long. Factor in recess breaks, lunch and transitions and there are about 4.5 hours of quality learning time in a day. How we play with that time is essential. You know you will see your students for a finite portion of their learning day so you have some choices to make about how that time should be invested. To play with time, focus first on the big picture before you start dialling it down to daily specifics. Think about all of the factors that might pull away your time…relational issues that need resolving after recess, assemblies, accidents, unexpected events like fire drills, absences, etc. Stuff happens in schools – there are a lot of variables that can’t be planned for or controlled. Leave room for these and focus on the time you DO have.

2. Clarify priorities. Knowing your curriculum well is the first step to knowing how to prioritize learning time. If you aren’t sure where you are going, how can you decide where to make curricular time investments? Be realistic when you decide on your curricular priorities. Real is not always ideal, and as Saunders puts it, “reality always wins.” Educators tend to have a bent towards the ideal, and in doing so, we lose sight of what is real. Plan with reality in mind – who are your real students (not the ones you imagine)? How much time do you really have (not how much time do you wish you had )? What is really worth knowing and doing? Decide what is essential – less is more. When we put the less is more principle into practice we can make wise time investments that bring playful learning yields. We leave room for learners to have the time to play, explore and inquire. We model prioritization for our students – a pretty necessary skill in today’s fast paced, time challenged world.

3. Habit Patterns Rule. Establishing routines and systems creates stability and security. When you feel stable and secure, fear is replaced by playfulness. One thing I’ve learned is that kids thrive on routines – not rigid routines, but consistent and predictable routines.  Predictability creates the space to for spontaneity. Spontaneity invites inquiry. Inquiry invites motivation. Motivation invites learning. Learning invites growth…  Habit patterns also enable us to make informed choices when setting priorities. (See #2) How often do we “fly by the seat of our pants” in the classroom? When there is a lack of routine, we lose sight of priorities, and we are right back in the trenches fighting the war against time.

Our relationship with time has significant impacts on how we approach every aspect of teaching and learning, from deciding which learning outcomes will have the highest priority, to how much time learners will need to spend on a task or engage in a learning opportunity, to how much room there is for students to engage in inquiry and reflection. If we are hurried, our students will feel hurried. If we are weary, our students will feel weary. If we are playful, then our students will feel playful. How will you invest your time, so that the learners in your classroom will see the value of how they invest theirs?

For more information on the work of Elizabeth Saunders, visit http://www.reallifee.com/

The URGE to Inquire

How do learning architects create urgency within curriculum?

Weekly check in reflection.

Some of our 2013 Central Ideas:

Population growth is a global issue that impacts quality of life.

The increasing availability of weapons has significant and lasting consequences.

Moving from concepts or topics to deeper issues.

Big lessons from little learners

“Children are learning about big ideas but they are also finding out about themselves and others in their community. ” (Jo Fahey, p. 27)

I’ve been spending some time reading through Jo Fahey’s recently released book, Ways to Learn Through Inquiry: Guiding Children to Deeper Understanding and reflecting on inquiry in the early years. It’s reminded me that we have so much to learn from the littlest inquirers in our schools. They come at inquiry from a place if pure openness. They don’t worry about saying what they think as they explore; they just say whatever comes to mind as they construct meaning, sort out differences and confirm or discredit their assumptions about the world, themselves and each other. It was timely that I happened to be observing in an SK classroom very recently. What I saw and heard brought the pages of Fahey’s book to life for me.
The teacher had planned a preparing provocation to have learners connect with their new unit of inquiry exploring the concept of shelters. The learning engagement involved learners working in small groups to explore, sort and categorize a collection of images (depicting various types of shelters, homes and habitats). The criteria for the task was that each group needed to work as a team to agree on how to sort the images into groups and then name their groupings. Students quickly set off, pouring over the images. I was very curious to see what each group would decide and how they would go about getting there. As I wandered the room kid watching, I happened upon the following exchange, as a group of students began to sort their images as “structures” and “not structures”:
A: This is not a structure. (Holds up a picture of a coral reef.)
B: How do you know?
A: Because no one put it there.
B: Well then who put it there?
A: I don’t know but it’s just there. No one built it.
B: What about the tree? (Holds up image of a tree.)
A: The bird did it.
B: Birds don’t make trees.
A: But they build in them.

Later on in the lesson, students shared their sorting categories with each other and discussed why they chose to label them as they did. When the group including the two students who had the above exchange shared, their sort still included two categories: structures and not structures. As the students went on to define their categories they indicated that images were “not structures because no one decided what they would look like.” Those pictures included in the structures category were there “because they’re not built out of the same things. Someone put them there and people live in them and some are for animals.”

The dialogue between these students and the level of thinking amongst them was so rich with inquiry. By the end of the lesson the students had a theory and a definition to begin developing their inquiry into the concept from. They were already engaged in the process of attending to differences right from the onset of the inquiry as they sorted, classified and reached consensus.
After reflecting on the lesson with the teacher afterwards, we both agreed that while the learners made some significant connections, they also had some misconceptions that could be further tended to through the inquiry process. While no direct question was asked of the teacher, several avenues for deeper inquiry were apparent and could be explored further:
– the idea that a shelter is only a built structure
– an inquiry into how coral reefs are made and how they do or do not provide shelter
-man made shelters vs. natural shelters
-shelters for people vs. shelters for animals
The possibilities could go on! And that’s the point. Providing constructs to facilitate inquiry leads to infinite possibilities for learning. The hardest part is getting out of the way and taking the time to learn from the learner – even the littlest learners!

Taking the Time to Learn From Mistakes

So now I’m wondering:

My knitting project…to date!


10 Best Tex-Mex Restaurants in Phoenix: Where to Find Southwest-Inspired Eats

Tex-Mex is a popular regional cuisine known for its use of savory grilled meats, ground beef, and red and green chile. In Phoenix, where Sonoran-style Mexican food dominates, Tex-Mex treats such as fajitas and chile con carne still manage to fly off the menu as diners savor the slow-roasted flavors and zest of these traditional Southwestern dishes.

Over at Sierra Bonita Grill, you won't find kitschy decor on the walls, but you will find often-delicious Southwestern cuisine that captures the spirit of cowboy cooking and Tex-Mex flavors.

If you're seeking the ultimate in Tex-Mex comfort food, head to Fajitas, a family-friendly restaurant known for its signature fajita platters. Dishes feature marinated strips of beef and grilled onions, served with a side of cheddar cheese, pico de gallo and sour cream.

If you're craving tamales, that other favorite Southwestern comfort food, The Tamale Store in north Phoenix offers freshly made, moist and irresistible tamales by the dozen, including their popular Tex-Mex tamale, made with ground beef and Monterrey jack cheese.

TexAZ Grill is something of a local institution around these parts. This friendly, family-run restaurant has been bringing a taste of Texas to the Valley for more than 30 years. The menu is frequently updated with specials, but you can always...  Read More

Sometimes you need to add a little spice to your life, and this is the place to do just that. Featuring the flavors of New Mexico, Richardson's satisfies hungry mouths until late into the evening. Chiles rellenos, quesadillas and wood-fired...  Read More

This South Phoenix institution has been dishing out some of the best home-style Mexican food for decades. Don't be fooled by the humble exterior and lackluster dining area: the food is hot, tasty, and top-notch. Tacos, burros, flautas,...  Read More

Dishes prominently influenced by New Mexico traditions are the main feature of this establishment. Owners Paul Bigelow and Jose Leyva present Arizona locals with an inexpensive way to enjoy top-quality Southwestern fare. Most popular are...  Read More

Fajitas, those sizzling hotplates brimming with marinated meats and veggies (served with a side of cheddar cheese, pico de gallo and sour cream, of course), is the focal point at this north-central Phoenix restaurant. The restaurant uses an...  Read More

This central Phoenix bar and grill is named after the historic Sierra Bonita Ranch in Southeastern Arizona. The restaurant offers an authentic Southwestern culinary experience, dishing out menu favorites such as their house Cowboy Stew, made...  Read More

Hearty portions, fresh salsa, and creamy, cheese-topped beans are on the menu at Popo's Fiesta del Sol, a popular family-friendly Mexican restaurant on Phoenix's westside. Festive decor and a huge menu of Mexican staples make this a popular...  Read More

This award-winning restaurant specializes in everyone's favorite Mexican comfort food staple: tamales. Soft, moist and stuffed with delicious meats, veggies and cheeses, there are almost as many ways to make tamales as there is to enjoy them. At...  Read More

Outside of town

Just north of Phoenix in the quaint Western hamlet of Cave Creek, you'll find Tonto Bar & Grill, an award-winning restaurant specializing in authentic Southwestern cuisine. The Tonto frequently makes the list of the top restaurants in the...  Read More

Meet Patricia Escarcega

She received her MFA in Creative...  More About Patricia


First Person

Commentary: Meaningful professional development

Jessica Cuthbertson is a literacy coach in Aurora Public Schools and an active member of the Denver New Millennium Initiative through the Center for Teaching Quality

Recently, three dozen teachers from multiple states, including Colorado, convened in California for the winter meeting of the National Writing Project’s Literacy Design Collaborative, a professional learning initiative funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

The second cohort of the collaborative is currently engaged in a two-year commitment that involves shared professional learning tied to Common Core Standards and the prototyping and implementation of “modules.” Modules are teacher-created curriculum plans that span a two-to-four week period of instruction in secondary literacy and other content areas.

The weekend’s work serves as a powerful framework for professional learning at its best – an extended experience where teachers were recognized as professionals and actively engaged in the process of relevant and rigorous learning.

Each teacher’s own district, school and classroom context was at the forefront of the work. An outsider looking in on these teachers might, at first glance, think that it was all about the modules themselves. Indeed, each teacher received at least an hour to present their work and receive feedback from their small group using a supportive protocol. But reducing the learning to just this task is akin to seeing exceptional classroom instruction as merely the result of a lesson plan.

Learning, at both levels, is much more complex. Regardless of the topic or title, each teacher presented detailed plans for critical and provocative learning. Each teacher asked questions that were thoughtful and complex. Each teacher worked to ensure the students experience learning that will change the way they think as readers, writers, speakers or thinkers.

Shouldn’t every teacher walk away from a professional learning experience feeling this way? Rejuvenated and inspired to change elements of their practice to better support and accelerate student learning?

The answer seems obvious, but the reality is that professional development is too often about doing, not learning. The result of this is classroom instruction focused on activities or tasks instead of meaningful learning. Or, at its worst, professional development can result in confusion, remediation or denigration of the very professionals the learning is supposed to empower.

So what can professional developers at the school, district or state level learn from the National Writing Project’s LDC initiative? The following elements were key factors in the success of this professional learning experience:

  • Time: Teachers had time to write, discuss, read, reflect and question. Every participant received the same amount of time to share and receive support specific to their work.
  • Creativity: While each teacher is producing a module using a similar template and process, the content and context of each module is unique to the teacher and the students it will serve. Teachers were encouraged and supported to be creative and to think outside the box to ensure that their module was meeting the needs not just of a range of learners, but of their specific learners.
  • Clear Commitments: Clear communication, organization and planning on the front end ensured that every teacher arrived prepared to share their work and left the weekend with clear commitments and next steps between now and the summer meeting. Teachers will carry out their work in unique and varied ways with their specific students, but understand the shared commitments and data they need to bring to move the work forward.
  • Professionalism: While feedback and support was provided, each teacher was trusted as a professional to make the revisions that best suited the context where they work and the students they serve. Ongoing support for feedback will also be provided as teachers finalize and implement their modules. In every conversation, teachers were honored and respected as pedagogy and content experts, elevating the conversations and creating a community of camaraderie among the teachers.
  • Can meaningful professional learning really be this simple?

    Time, creativity, clear commitments and professionalism ensured every teacher learned and contributed to the conversation. Infusing these elements into our site-based and district level professional learning can shift professional development from something that is done to teachers, to something that is done by teachers.

    First Person

    PHOTO: Patrick Wall
    Layla Gonzalez

    First Person

    PHOTO: Patrick Wall
    Jennifer Palumbo

    They are like me but in a way backwards.

    We can break through!


The face is the first thing that people see when they look at us.  Every face is different, with its own personality and history.  Surgical or medical aesthetic facial procedures are often done to reduce a tired looking face, to brighten up the facial features and to improve people’s self-confidence.

2 components must be considered and addressed:

The facial structural component

This involves the structure and the facial architecture.  With time, the facial structure changes: the face loses its fat, which allows the underlying skeleton to appear, giving it a wearily look.

In addition, between gravity and melting fat, the tissues tend to move down, changing the overall facial architecture.

Plastic facial surgery will then reshape the facial architecture:

  • Lifting to improve the facial contours
  • Lipofilling to correct facial fat loss
  • Blepharoplasty to treat dropping eyelids or under eye pockets
  • Rhinoplasty to change the nose’s shape
  • Otoplasty for ear shaping

The dermal component

This is the skin overlying the facial fat and bone structures.  This skin component can only be covered by specific aesthetic medicine. The goal is to improve the skin quality by correcting the skin imperfections and flaws.  Injections and resurfacing treatments are used to improve skin quality:

For optimal and natural results, it is necessary to conduct a thorough facial examination to completely analyze all the features and the possible results.

Note that often, aesthetic technics can be used as complementary manners in order to assure the best possible results.


Helping Children Understand Social Shades Of Gray

My 9 year old son is constantly accusing others of being mean but I think it has more to do with how he defines the behavior of his peers. Help is appreciated!

One of the many challenges of growing up is contained within the sometimes mysterious world of peer culture: misunderstood meanings of social behavior. The emphasis on dichotomizing peer behavior as either good or bad, reinforced by the broad definitions of bullying, has planted the seeds for many children to label peers as either nice or mean. This sets the stage for personalization, avoidance, accusation, and other social traps that are the result of skewed perceptions. Difficulty understanding social shades of gray can be resolved when children learn how to consider that the vast majority of peer behavior is not nice or mean, but in-between.

If your child is often caught in the black and white blinders of peer perception read on for ways to help them appreciate the subtleties and shades of peer life.

helping-children-understand-social-shades-of-grayBegin by explaining the concept of interpersonal behavior as "in-between." Draw upon examples in real life reflecting how people are often relating to one another on neither extreme of nice or mean, but within the shaded zone where present situations impact upon our behavior. Distinguish between the hurried hello when acknowledging a neighbor in a grocery store vs. the cheery greeting when patiently sharing stories at the bus stop. Explain how the same person acts very differently depending upon the situation due to reasons that are often times unknown to us. This tendency to "show our shades" to others has a lot to do with situations, such as being in a hurry or concerns over the presence of others.

Further educate children by posing the question, "Is it nice, mean, or in-between?" Graphically display this rubric with vertical lines on a paper laid on a horizontal plane. Show how the two margins, the "nice" and "mean" sections, occupy about 25% of the page while the center section takes up the remaining 50%. Use this visual aid to place some of the past peer encounters shared by your child, depicting them as circles that reflect one of the three behaviors, or perhaps overlap on one side or the other. Explain how these "situation circles" are important in understanding why peers behaved the way they did, even if all the reasons are not clear.

Offer examples of the many reasons why children's behavior falls in-between, or why the same child may behave in the nice zone when they are over for a play date but in the in-between zone at recess or within a group activity at school. Discuss how the presence of others effects the way individual children behave due to the pressure they feel to conform to the "group effect." Illustrate this effect by describing how the wish to gain popularity, appear "cool" to others, or follow the lead of an admired peer can strongly impact upon the way one child behaves within the group, regardless of the presence of a good friend. Suggest that this can explain why a friend acts so differently in different places.

Encourage them to take a "mental picture" of the rubric to have available in their thoughts. Ask them to use the "mental drawing" to protect themselves from having their feelings easily hurt when friends act differently or when they are confused by peer events around them. Continue to discuss the in-between zone as circumstances emerge that validate this notion.

Dr. Steven Richfield is a child psychologist and author in Plymouth Meeting. Comtact him at 610-238-4450

Ed. note: Detailed information on parenting skills here.

next: Children with Asperger’s Syndrome Hurt by Asperger’s Stigma
~ back to: Parenting Articles Table of Contents

Last Updated: 28 March 2017

Reviewed by Harry Croft, MD

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Image: Probiotics for baby: Infants lacking in good gut bacteria are more susceptible to bad bacteria

(Natural News) Infants who lack good gut bacteria are more susceptible to bad bacteria, according to a review of studies. The review, published in the journal mSphere, found that the lack of the good bacteria in infants caused changes in the pH level of their feces.

Supplementation of probiotics in infants

An earlier study, also funded by Evolve Biosystems, suggested that supplementation of a probiotic that contains a proprietary strain of B. infantis restored good bacteria, reduced bad bacteria, and lowered fecal pH in infants.

In this study, one-week old babies were given the proprietary EVC001 strain of B. infantis for three weeks. Results showed that even though the supplementation was completed, the bacteria remained in the gut of the infants for 30 more days. Moreover, the supplementation caused reductions in the fecal pH levels of the infants and decreased the numbers of harmful Proteobacteria, which is a marker of dysbiosis (microbial imbalance). When compared to the control group, the supplemented infants had four times lower endotoxin levels and higher levels of lactate and acetate.

Furthermore, the supplemented infants had lower levels of fecal milk oligosaccharides, which indicated higher consumption of human milk oligosaccharides (HMO) by the probiotic B. infantis. This finding supports previous evidence that B. infantis works with HMO in breast milk to help produce a beneficial microbiome in infants.

“It’s able to use the sugar molecules in mom’s milk better than any other gut microbiome, including commensal and pathogenic bugs,” said Mark Underwood, lead researcher of the study.

Read more news stories and studies on health and wellness by going to

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Potential role of transient receptor potential (TRP) channels in bladder cancer cells

Transient receptor potential (TRP) channels play important roles in thermal, chemical, and mechanical sensation in various tissues. In this study, we investigated the differences in urothelial TRP channels between normal urothelial cells and bladder cancer cells. TRPV2 and TRPM7 expression levels and TRPV2 activator-induced intracellular Ca2+ increases were… (More)
DOI: 10.1007/s12576-014-0319-6

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