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euromicron AG: New appointments to and expansion of the Executive Board of euromicron AG

The Supervisory Board of euromicron AG (WKN A1K030) announced a new appointment and expansion of the Executive Board of euromicron AG today, thus initiating a first step for a new phase in the realignment of the Group. Effective January 1, 2020, Dr. Michael Hofer will be appointed Chief Financial Officer (CFO) and Dr. Andreas Schmid Chief Operations Officer (COO) on the Executive Board of euromicron AG.




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Barnes saw it coming... but coach 'disappointed' he was cut ahead of Gold Cup

GIVEN the financial position of the Jamaica Football Federation (JFF), John Barnes had resigned




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CBD News: The CBD Secretariat is launching an e-Newsletter on "Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD)" today, to inform CBD National Focal Points and other interested recipients about the biodiversity aspects of this




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CBD Communiqué: TEEB Appoints the Executive Secretary to its Advisory Board.




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CBD UN Press Release: Japanese Singer Misia Appointed Honorary Ambassador for Tenth Conference of Parties to UN Convention on Biodiversity, in Nagoya, 18-29 October.




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CBD Press Release: United Nations Secretary-General Appoints the Japanese Singer MISIA as Honorary Ambassador for the 2010 United Nations Biodiversity Conference.




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CBD Press Release: Jean Lemire Appointed Ambassador to the Green Wave for Biodiversity.




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CBD News: United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon announced today the appointment of Braulio Ferreira de Souza Dias, a national of Brazil, as Executive Secretary of the Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity, at the Assistant Secretary




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CBD News: This year's World Day to Combat Desertification shows the importance of being inclusive as we cooperate to restore and rehabilitate degraded land. It also points to the convergence of international action and landmark agreements recently ado




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CBD News: United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, following consultation with the Bureau of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity, announced the appointment of Cristiana Pasca Palmer of Romania as Executive Secreta




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CBD News: Achieving global biodiversity targets will be a strong contribution to realizing the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, said Dr. Cristiana Pasca Palmer, newly appointed Executive Secretary of the Convention on Biological Diversity, to Unit




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CBD News: Germany has published the first report on the utilization of genetic resources through the Access and Benefit-sharing (ABS) Clearing-House by issuing a checkpoint communiqué concerning research on ants from South Africa. This was rapidly fo




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Zhu reduction for Jacobi ????-point functions and applications

Kathrin Bringmann, Matthew Krauel and Michael Tuite
Trans. Amer. Math. Soc. 373 (2020), 3261-3293.
Abstract, references and article information





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On the containment problem for fat points ideals and Harbourne’s conjecture

Ştefan O. Tohǎneanu and Yu Xie
Proc. Amer. Math. Soc. 148 (2020), 2411-2419.
Abstract, references and article information





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Points, Lines, and Incidences




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EdUHK council chair reappointed

The Chief Executive has reappointed Frederick Ma as Chairman of the Education University of Hong Kong (EdUHK) Council from April 25 to December 31, the Government announced today.

 

Secretary for Education Kevin Yeung thanked Mr Ma for accepting the reappointment, saying that under his leadership, EdUHK continues to focus on educational research, development and innovation and promoting and supporting the development of teacher education in Hong Kong by nurturing outstanding and committed educators and professionals.

 

Mr Ma cannot accept a three-year term up until 2023 due to personal reasons. In the meantime, the Government will identify a suitable candidate for the chairmanship of the EdUHK Council.




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HKEx chief not to seek reappointment

Hong Kong Exchanges & Clearing Limited (HKEx) today announced that Charles Li will not seek reappointment as Chief Executive at the end of his current contract in October 2021.

     

The Government said it respected Mr Li's decision and expressed deep appreciation for his exemplary contribution to the development of the financial market during his tenure as HKEx Chief Executive in the past decade.

 

Since taking the helm in January 2010, he has led HKEx and Hong Kong’s capital market in achieving important breakthroughs one after another.

 

The vibrancy and growth that Mr Li has brought to Hong Kong in the capital market helps reinforce the status of Hong Kong as a leading international financial centre.

 

Financial Secretary Paul Chan said: "Thanks to his vision and leadership, Mr Li has laid a solid and strong foundation for our stock market, rendering Hong Kong the largest IPO market in the world for seven times in the past 11 years.

 

"He has been instrumental in the successful launch of mutual market access programmes between Hong Kong and the Mainland, notably the Shanghai-Hong Kong Stock Connect in 2014, which was expanded to include Shenzhen-Hong Kong Stock Connect in 2016 and Bond Connect in 2017.

 

"He also played a pivotal role in the launch of new listing regime in Hong Kong, the enhanced internationalisation of HKEx and its international visibility. These are all important achievements of HKEx in the past few years under Mr Li’s able leadership."

Mr Chan added that the Government is confident the HKEx board will continue to ensure the success of HKEx in the years to come.




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Appointments to Vocational Training Council




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Appointments to Education Commission announced




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Appointment of Chairman of Council of Lingnan University




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Appointments to Quality Education Fund Steering Committee




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Appointment of new member to Advisory Committee on Gifted Education




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Re-appointment of Chairman of Council of Education University of Hong Kong




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Twitter -- not just pointless babble

(Queensland University of Technology) It started life as the concept drawing for a mobile 'status update' tool only geeks could love. Now we cannot imagine a world without Twitter, its hashtags, and the worldwide movements it has helped create. A new book tracks its journey.




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Hyper-progressive Disease in Patients With Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer Treated With Checkpoint Inhibitors: The Role of 18F-FDG PET/CT

Introduction: A new pattern of response, so-called hyper-progressive disease (HPD), is emerging during treatment with immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICI). Our aim was to investigate the prevalence of such phenomenon and to assess its association with clinical variables and metabolic parameters by 18F-fludeoxyglucose positron emission tomography/computed tomography (18F-FDG PET/CT). Methods: Data from 50 patients (34 male, 16 female, median age 73) with non-small cell lung carcinoma (NSCLC) and treated with ICI were prospectively collected. All patients underwent contrast-enhanced CT, 18F-FDG PET/CT, and complete peripheral blood sample at baseline before ICI. HPD was defined according to clinical and radiologic criteria. Because of the rapid disease progression or worsening of clinic conditions, radiologic response assessment was available for 46 patients. OS were analyzed using the Kaplan–Meier method and the log-rank test. A Cox proportional hazards regression analysis was used to evaluate factors independently associated with OS. Median follow-up was 12.4 months (9.7-15.2 months). Results: We identified the following response categories: 10 cases as complete/partial response (CR/PR), 17 cases with stable disease (SD), 5 patients with progressive disease (PD), and 14 with HPD. Among metabolic parameters we observed a statistically significant association between HPD status and tumor burden, expressed by both MTV (756.1ml for HPD vs 475.6ml for non-HPD, P = 0.011) and TLG (287.3 for HPD vs 62.1 for non-HPD, P = 0.042). Among clinical variables, 12/14 patients (85.7%) within the HPD group compared with 8/32 patients (25%) in the non-HDP group had more than two metastatic sites (p<0.001). In addition, the derived neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (dNLR) and platelet counts was significantly associated with HPD status (P = 0.038, P = 0.025, respectively). Survival analysis showed a median OS of 4 months for HPD group compared with 15 months within non-HPD patients (P = 0.003). Likewise, median OS was significantly different when we considered all the response categories: CR/PR, SD, PD, and HPD (P = 0.001). Finally, Multivariate analysis identified MTV and dNLR as independent predictors for OS. Conclusion: Our results suggest that the use of ICI might represent a concern in patients with high metabolic tumor burden and inflammatory indexes at baseline. However Additional studies are needed.




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Immune checkpoint imaging in oncology - a game changer towards personalized immunotherapy?

Immune checkpoint blockade represents a promising approach in oncology, showing anti-tumor activities in various cancers. However, although being generally far more well-tolerated than classical cytotoxic chemotherapy, this treatment, too, may be accompanied by considerable side effects and not all patients benefit equally. Therefore, careful patient selection and monitoring of the treatment response is mandatory. At present, checkpoint-specific molecular imaging is increasingly investigated as a tool for patient selection and response evaluation. Here, an overview of the current developments in immune checkpoint imaging is provided.




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Diagnosis of Hyper-progressive Disease in Patients Treated with Checkpoint Inhibitors using 18F-FDG PET/CT




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Interim PET evaluation in diffuse large B-cell lymphoma employing published recommendations: Comparison of the Deauville 5-point scale and the {Delta}SUVmax method

The value of interim 18F-fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography (iPET) guided treatment decisions in patients with diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) has been the subject of much debate. This investigation focuses on a comparison of the Deauville score and the deltaSUVmax (SUVmax) approach – two methods to assess early metabolic response to standard chemotherapy in DLBCL. Methods: Of 609 DLBCL patients participating in the Positron Emission Tomography-guided Therapy of Aggressive non-Hodgkin Lymphomas (PETAL) trial, iPET scans of 596 patients originally evaluated using the SUVmax method were available for post-hoc assessment of the Deauville score. A commonly used definition of an unfavorable iPET result according to the Deauville score is an uptake greater than that of the liver, whereas an unfavorable iPET scan with regard to the SUVmax approach is characterized as a relative reduction of the maximum standardized uptake value between baseline and iPET staging of less than or equal to 66%. We investigated the two methods’ correlation and concordance by Spearman’s rank correlation coefficient and the agreement in classification, respectively. We further used Kaplan-Meier curves and Cox regression to assess differences in survival between patient subgroups defined by the pre-specified cut-offs. Time-dependent receiver operating curve analysis provided information on the methods’ respective discrimination performance. Results: Deauville score and SUVmax approach differed in their iPET-based prognosis. The SUVmax approach outperformed the Deauville score in terms of discrimination performance – most likely due to a high number of false-positive decisions by the Deauville score. Cut-off-independent discrimination performance remained low for both methods, but cut-off-related analyses showed promising results. Both favored the SUVmax approach, e.g. for the segregation by iPET response, where the event-free survival hazard ratio was 3.14 (95% confidence interval (CI): 2.22 – 4.46) for SUVmax and 1.70 (95% CI: 1.29 – 2.24) for the Deauville score. Conclusion: When considering treatment intensification, the currently used Deauville score cut-off of an uptake above that of the liver seems to be inappropriate and associated with potential harm for DLBCL patients. The SUVmax criterion of a relative reduction of the maximum standardized uptake value of less than or equal to 66% should be considered as an alternative.




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Problem Notes for SAS®9 - 65940: You might receive "ERROR: PI Point not found" when you query a PI tag name that contains a special character such as an ampersand (&)

When you query a PI tag name or element that contains a special character, such as an ampersand (&), you might receive the following error:



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General practices achieve 95% of QOF points




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"What's the point in living, in a body I don't want" - how the NHS treats trans people

James Barrett, president of the British Association of Gender Identity Specialists, and Nina, a trans woman, join us to discuss how difficult it can be for trans people to access gender clinics, and what barriers are faced by the community after their transition has been completed. Read James Barrett's personal...




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Behind the campaign promises - GP numbers, and appointment slots

A UK general election has been called - polling day is on the 12th of December, and from now until then we’re going to be bringing you a weekly election-themed podcast. We want to help you make sense of the promises and pledges, claims and counter-claims, that are being made around healthcare and the NHS out on the campaign trail. This week has...




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Chokepoints and Vulnerabilities in Global Food Trade

27 June 2017

Policymakers must take action immediately to mitigate the risk of severe disruption at certain ports, maritime straits, and inland transport routes, which could have devastating knock-on effects for global food security.

Rob Bailey

Former Research Director, Energy, Environment and Resources

Laura Wellesley

Research Fellow, Energy, Environment and Resources Programme

2017-06-27-chokepoints.jpg

Pedro Miguel locks, Panama Canal. Photo: Gonzalo Azumendi/Getty Images.
  • Trade chokepoints – maritime, coastal and inland – pose an underexplored and growing risk to global food security.
  • Maritime chokepoints will become increasingly integral to meeting global food supply as population growth, shifting dietary preferences, bioenergy expansion and slowing improvements in crop yields drive up demand for imported grain.
  • Rising trade volumes, increasing dependence on imports among food-deficit countries, underinvestment, weak governance, climate change and emerging disruptive hazards together make chokepoint disruptions – both small-scale and large-scale – increasingly likely.
  • Climate change will have a compounding effect on chokepoint risk, increasing the probability of both isolated and multiple concurrent weather-induced disturbances.
  • Investment in infrastructure lags demand growth: critical networks in major crop-producing regions are weak and ageing, and extra capacity is urgently needed. 

Recommendations

  • Integrate chokepoint analysis into mainstream risk management and security planning - for example, government agencies should assess exposure and vulnerability to chokepoint risk at the national and subnational levels.
  • Invest in infrastructure to ensure future food security – for example by agreeing on guidelines for climate-compatible infrastructure through an international taskforce established under the G20.
  • Enhance confidence and predictability in global trade - for example, through a process under the World Trade Organization (WTO) to continually reduce the scope for export restrictions
  • Develop emergency supply-sharing arrangements and smarter strategic storage, e.g. an emerging response mechanism among major players in the global food trade, modelled in part on that of the International Energy Agency in oil markets and led by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the UN World Food Programme (WFP) or the Agricultural Market Information System (AMIS).
  • Build the evidence base around chokepoint risk - including through the collection of data on real-time food trade and infrastructural capacity to aid in assessing risks to food supply chains.

Further Reading




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Crisis in the Courts: Is the Backlogged U.S. Immigration Court System at Its Breaking Point?

With a backlog of more than 1 million removal cases, the U.S. immigration court system is in crisis. Pressure from external forces, internal challenges, and lagging resources for the courts at a time of massive increases in spending on immigration enforcement have contributed to the backlog. This article explores how the system got to the breaking point, and what opportunities for reform exist.




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ADA seeks appointee to Joint Commission board

The Association is calling for nominations of qualified individuals to serve as the ADA appointee to the Joint Commission Board of Commissioners.




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Dental Trade Alliance appoints new CEO

Arlington, Va. — The Dental Trade Alliance announced March 10 that it appointed Gregory Chavez as CEO. Mr. Chavez, formerly the executive vice president of operations and membership at The Vision Council, will be taking over for Gary Price.




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University of Minnesota dental school appoints Dr. Keith A. Mays as interim dean

The University of Minnesota School of Dentistry announced March 19 that it named Dr. Keith A. Mays, Ph.D, as its interim dean for two years beginning May 15.




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University of Washington School of Dentistry appoints Dr. Gary Chiodo as dean

The University of Washington School of Dentistry announced March 26 that Dr. Gary Chiodo, its interim dean since August 2018, will now serve a full five-year term as dean.




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ADA president appoints task force for dental practice recovery after COVID-19 pandemic

American Dental Association President Chad P. Gehani has assembled an advisory task force to oversee the ADA’s development of tools for dentists as they bounce back from the effects of practice restrictions and closures caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.




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ADA urges HHS to federally recognize licensed dentists to administer point of service COVID-19 tests

The ADA sent a letter to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services April 17 asking the agency to “issue federal recognition that licensed dentists may administer point of service tests authorized by the Food and Drug Administration” during the COVID-19 pandemic.




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Effects of Low-Energy Diet or Exercise on Cardiovascular Function in Working-Age Adults With Type 2 Diabetes: A Prospective, Randomized, Open-Label, Blinded End Point Trial

OBJECTIVE

To confirm the presence of subclinical cardiovascular dysfunction in working-age adults with type 2 diabetes (T2D) and determine whether this is improved by a low-energy meal replacement diet (MRP) or exercise training.

RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS

This article reports on a prospective, randomized, open-label, blinded end point trial with nested case-control study. Asymptomatic younger adults with T2D were randomized 1:1:1 to a 12-week intervention of 1) routine care, 2) supervised aerobic exercise training, or 3) a low-energy (~810 kcal/day) MRP. Participants underwent echocardiography, cardiopulmonary exercise testing, and cardiac magnetic resonance (CMR) at baseline and 12 weeks. The primary outcome was change in left ventricular (LV) peak early diastolic strain rate (PEDSR) as measured by CMR. Healthy volunteers were enrolled for baseline case-control comparison.

RESULTS

Eighty-seven participants with T2D (age 51 ± 7 years, HbA1c 7.3 ± 1.1%) and 36 matched control participants were included. At baseline, those with T2D had evidence of diastolic dysfunction (PEDSR 1.01 ± 0.19 vs. 1.10 ± 0.16 s–1, P = 0.02) compared with control participants. Seventy-six participants with T2D completed the trial (30 routine care, 22 exercise, and 24 MRP). The MRP arm lost 13 kg in weight and had improved blood pressure, glycemia, LV mass/volume, and aortic stiffness. The exercise arm had negligible weight loss but increased exercise capacity. PEDSR increased in the exercise arm versus routine care (β = 0.132, P = 0.002) but did not improve with the MRP (β = 0.016, P = 0.731).

CONCLUSIONS

In asymptomatic working-age adults with T2D, exercise training improved diastolic function. Despite beneficial effects of weight loss on glycemic control, concentric LV remodeling, and aortic stiffness, a low-energy MRP did not improve diastolic function.




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South Dakota gov. orders tribes to remove checkpoints; U.S. death toll tops 77K

South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem has ordered two Sioux tribes to remove checkpoints designed to curb the coronavirus on tribal lands.




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With Power Comes a Selfish Point of View

In the interest of promoting democracy, Pakistan's president, Gen. Pervez Musharraf, recently announced that he had to lock up most of his country's democracy activists. And because he wanted the Pakistani Supreme Court to independently rule on whether he could continue as president, Musharraf also...




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Who Are the Better Managers -- Political Appointees or Career Bureaucrats?

Every time the White House changes hands between the Democrats and the Republicans, the outgoing party quickly sees the virtues of staffing government departments with competent managers. The incoming party invariably seeks to reward loyal campaign operatives with political appointments.




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Borderline Irrelevant: Why Reforming the Dublin Regulation Misses the Point

European policymakers are fixated on reform of the Dublin Regulation, the contentious rules that carve up responsibility for asylum claims between EU states. They see it not only as a long-term prophylactic against future fluctuations in irregular migration, but as a marker of the success or failure of solidarity in Europe overall. Yet rather than doggedly working to salvage Dublin, policymakers need to stop and consider why they regard it as so integral to European cooperation, as this commentary explores.




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Pointillism in 1st Grade? Teachers Use Unfamiliar Lessons to Mine for Giftedness

Some districts are using new “response lessons” to identify the talented students that traditional assessments miss.




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Conversation with the DC Masters Some Miscellaneous Points.




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Forum 2019 : 10B due diligence pressure points : personnel, privacy and proprietary data / sliides presented by Cam Steele, Jessica Nicholls and Daniel Kiley, HWL Ebsworth Lawyers.