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This is a skill building journey to learn how to trust your allies in the spirit world. It may sound easy; however, most of us have had a time in our life when something happened and we were blindsided or had the rug pulled out from underneath us. We were shocked and greatly impacted. This can make us be skeptical, weary and untrusting of new things and others. I was one of those people. So when it came to journeying in the beginning it was hard for me to trust the information I received. My guides lovingly yet dramatically showed me how to trust them. It was one of the best blessings I received from working with my spiritual guides in non-ordinary reality. It also helped me learn to trust a little easier in the real world. Journey Intention: Teach me how to trust you and my journeys in non-ordinary reality. top of page bottom of page
There’s a powerful piece in today’s NY Times in case you haven’t seen it yet. This part hit me like a ton of bricks: “What are three quick ways to become a leader? a) Execute on the firm’s “axes,” which is Goldman-speak for persuading your clients to invest in the stocks or other products that we are trying to get rid of because they are not seen as having a lot of potential profit. b) “Hunt Elephants.” In English: get your clients — some of whom are sophisticated, and some of whom aren’t — to trade whatever will bring the biggest profit to Goldman. Call me old-fashioned, but I don’t like selling my clients a product that is wrong for them. c) Find yourself sitting in a seat where your job is to trade any illiquid, opaque product with a three-letter acronym.” The article really resonates with me because of my own personal experience on Wall Street and at big firms. I remember hanging up the phone 10 years ago after a very large trade with a great friend/client of mine and immediately checking the P&L (profit and loss) to see my commission and then thinking to myself: “He could have done that trade for $7 at ETrade….” I was always battling with the need to generate revenue for the firm (and keep my job) while also trying to do what I thought was best for the client. I had a conflict of interest in my mind at all times. I kept wanting to reduce the fees for my clients through ETF’s or other products while also trying to create a more performance based business. One in which the performance of my recommendations was actually in-line with what the client’s goals were. So what did I do? I left the firm, started a small private investment partnership, made a bunch of money for rich guys for 7 years and then realized during the financial crisis that what I was doing for society was not much better than what I was always doing….In a weird sort of way the website (being free and all) became my release. A way for me to give back to the public without charging them an arm and a leg. I’m a firm believer in the importance of Wall Street. But I also worry about the negative effects of financialization and the vast impact this is having on society. Unfortunately, the world is just starting to catch on to this effect and it’s way too late…. Mr. Roche is the Founder and Chief Investment Officer of Discipline Funds.Discipline Funds is a low fee financial advisory firm with a focus on helping people be more disciplined with their finances. He is also the author of Pragmatic Capitalism: What Every Investor Needs to Understand About Money and Finance, Understanding the Modern Monetary System and Understanding Modern Portfolio Construction.
At PRAKALPA, we are committed to protecting your privacy and safeguarding your personal information. We take your privacy seriously and sincerely comply with all applicable privacy laws and regulations. At PRAKALPA, we collect personal information from users to enhance their experience on our website and to provide them with access to our different events. The types of personal information we collect may include: We may collect this information through various means, including forms on our website and through interactions with our team members. In order to provide our full range of services, we may use the information in following ways: We do not sell, trade, or transfer your personal information to third parties without your consent, except as required by law. We may share your information with third-party service providers who assist us in operating our website or providing event-related services, provided that they agree to keep your information confidential and secure. Cookies help us remember user preferences and allow us to provide customized content based on their interests and browsing behaviour. We may use both session cookies, which are temporary and expire when the user closes their browser, and persistent cookies, which remain on the user's device until they are deleted or expired. Cookies may be set by our website or by third-party service providers that we work with, to provide event-related services. At PRAKALPA, we are committed to protecting the privacy and personal information of our users. As a user of our website, you have certain rights regarding your personal information, including: You have the right to access the personal information we have collected about you and to request a copy of this information. You have the right to request that we correct any inaccurate or incomplete personal information we have about you. You have the right to request that we delete your personal information, subject to any legal obligations we may have to retain certain information. You have the right to request that we restrict the processing of your personal information in certain circumstances, such as if you contest the accuracy of the information we have collected. You have the right to request that we provide you with a copy of your personal information in a structured, machine-readable format, and to transmit this information to another controller You have the right to object to the processing of your personal information in certain circumstances, such as if we are processing your information for direct marketing purposes. If you wish to exercise any of these rights, please contact us at [email protected] We will make every effort to respond to your inquiry in a timely and professional manner. The security of our users' personal information is of utmost importance to us. Access to personal information is restricted to authorized personnel only, and we regularly review and update our security procedures to ensure that they meet or exceed industry standards. By using our service, users agree to abide by our security measures and understand that we committed to ensure the absolute security of their personal information. We will do everything within our power to protect their information and maintain the trust they have placed in us.
In a bid to boost Assam's farmer community, a special joint ministerial-level meeting was held between Housing & Urban Affairs and Irrigation Minister Ashok Singhal and Agriculture Minister Atul Bora in Guwahati's Janata Bhawan on Friday. In the meeting, several important decisions were taken to enhance the coordination and cooperation between the two departments. The meeting was attended by senior officials of both departments. The key decisions taken in the meeting are: * Both the Agriculture and Irrigation departments will utilize each other's infrastructure and technology to implement various schemes that share a common goal * As per the advice of the Agriculture Department, the Irrigation Department will take up projects in specific areas and similarly, the Agriculture Department will encourage the farming community in the areas covered by the Irrigation Department's project to cultivate two or more crops in a year * At the field level, officials of the two departments will work in close coordination and senior officials of both departments will conduct joint review meetings every month * As ministers, both Shri Atul Bora and Ashok Singhal will jointly conduct frequent visits to various areas in the state to strengthen the agricultural sector through irrigation.
(September 2010) Perhaps the greatest satisfaction for a journalist is to see one’s reporting produce positive change. Journalists are the link between policymakers and the public, and their role as watchdog is to monitor the actions of government and hold those in charge accountable. To do this, they need information, and they need to be able to communicate it with context and background to both policymakers and the public. How well are journalists monitoring the actions, or inaction, of their government institutions (particularly those in developing countries) responsible for public health? What obstacles do journalists face in this pursuit? Are news organizations making an adequate commitment to coverage of public health? If health issues are being pushed aside by political news, what can health journalists do to raise the profile of their stories? During a PRB Discuss Online, PRB’s media specialists Deborah Mesce and Victoria Ebin, and Nairobi-based journalist Florence Machio, answered participants’ questions about the news media’s role in holding governments accountable. This Discuss Online session was sponsored by the BRIDGE project, a cooperative agreement between USAID’s Global Health Bureau and PRB. Sept. 15, 2010 1 PM EST Transcript of Questions and Answers Sissoko Foussénou: What Strategy could be used to developp materials which simplify basic concept on Public Health ? Victoria Ebin: Keep in mind who your audience is. If you want to reach a general public, keep your writing simple, jargon-free and of course, it must be 100% reliable and up-to-date. Complicated data should be expressed in terms that your audience can understand and also pass on to others. Geoffrey Onditi in Nairobi.: How do you hold the government accountable in countries where freedom is expression rare? Florence Machio: Thanks Geoffrey. I want to believe that in countries where they have achieved freedom of expression especially in Kenya it’s because someone (usually a journalist) chose to be persistent. It’s this persistence and sometimes stepping on government’s toes that has resulted in freedom of expression. I know one can always tell a good story without landing themselves in jail. Remember the story of women sharing beds and others lying on the floor at Kenyatta National Hospital (Kenya’s largest referral hospital) and how the minister then and even parliament woke up and discussed the issue which would have otherwise beeen ignored? Investigative pieces that are factual will always win the day and might create the space for freedom of expression. ssebiryo F Exaviosu: Comment: In a situation where Media freedom has not been realized substantially, I wonder whether the new-media as you have termed it has done anything big! Take a case of my country Uganda, thought the media give spotlight on disarray in public health system management; government press censoring and intimidation do much to conceal more misfortune in public accountability… Deborah Mesce: You are right that the Ugandan media has highlighted problems in the country’s public health system, and in fact it has brought results. One example is a series of stories that ran in one of the newspapers about the dismal state of referral hospitals. According to people close to the government, the series prompted officials to seek a loan from the World Bank. And in June, the World bank announced a loan for $130 million to improve health infrastructure in the country. I think it’s also the media’s job to follow up and monitor how this money is used. Geoffrey Onditi in Nairobi.: Some media people lack facilitation or the capability to cover health stories lets say in slum and rural areas. How can journalists who do not have that ability be motivated to highlight health problems? Florence Machio: I hope I understand correctly that by facilitation, you mean the resources to get to areas that are less reported about e.g., rural areas. If that is the case…yes it is challenging and speaking as a journalist, many times I felt like giving up because of that, but when I started pitching good stories and identifying editors in the newsroom who could back me up, I eventually did get the resources to go out. Most editors will back a good idea and facilitate you to do it. Everyone likes a good scope! What kept me going and helped me stay motivated was the fact that there was a story that was yet to be told and I had a duty to tell it. zofeen t. ebrahim: I am from Pakistan and I don’t see journalists covering this very important aspect, although I have seen a few doctors writing articles in newspapers highlighting it. What I see in the media is sensational news, never an academic and a fruitful discussion on the above issue. There will be stories and television packages on the alleged negligence of doctors or use of expired drugs. There will be a story or two of a multi-million rupee-health facility rotting away and then no follow-up after that in a few months if any action was taken by the government to the news. The problem is that journalists are not interested in doing investigative stories. It takes too long, there are many dead-ends, people in the know are not willing to talk and those in the government usually make journalists go round and round in circles. Most of the time they tell writers they(journalists)need to take permission before they can talk on record or show public records. Given such a complex way of getting information, the journalist is bound to find another easier story to do or tackle an issue which is “sexier”. In the meantime, the private sector flourishes! Can you suggest a way to tackle this not so easy subject? Deborah Mesce: You make good points, but at least the media is covering some health news. Investigative stories can be time-consuming, which can mean expensive for media companies that look for the quick fix. One problem common to many countries seems to be lack of follow-up on stories. I’m sure part of this is that government officials don’t want to talk, but they are going to continue to spin reporters in circles as long as they are able to, and that could be until the media dig in their heels. Aumio Srizan: What is the role of the media? What do they show us? What we want to know? Or what we need to know? Or what the media wants us to know? Deborah Mesce: These are age-old questions. I think there is not just one role for the media. But one of the things I think they should do is provide the information that their readers/listeners need to know. Then the question becomes: who decides what we need to know? This is a discussion that will take more than an hour to resolve, if ever. Orton Kiishweko: In LDCs like Tanzania where HIV response budget is 96 percent donor dependent,the top killer malaria is largely donor dependent,-does nt it make it tricky for a journalist to hold accountable the government when donors walk out of the equation?who do I hold accountable?is it my government or the donor countries? Deborah Mesce: I think journalists should hold their governments accountable for the amount they contribute to health sector spending, and in the 2001 Abuja Declaration, African governments agreed to strive for 15 percent of their national budgets being devoted to health. The other question, though, is whether the money being spent on health—whether from the country’s resources or donors—is used effectively and efficiently. The government will tell you one thing, but the media should see for themselves if what the government says is true. The answer is usually not black-and-white, so these are not easy stories to do. But I think that if the media should try to do them. Florence Machio: Thank you for your question Orton. Who do you hold accountable?..your government. I believe donors come in to try and supplement what governments are doing and it is not necessarily their prerogative.If we take the example of health or just family planning most governments in Africa have yet to commit to the Abuja declaration of putting aside 15% of their GDP towards health care. That shows lack of political will.These same governments have enough to pay their Members of parliament and equip their armies yet find it difficult to commit to healthcare even with the smallest of percentages.I hope that answers your question. Susan Anyangu-Amu: Media ownership is an issue in Kenya where media is driven by making profits…advertisements take centrestage…politics and gossip are the lure of the day for profits to be made….how then does a journalist focusing on health ensure that public health story makes it to the front page. Are we not fighting a loosing battle here, especially so when it comes to reproductive health…because then here we are dealing with double discrimination…it is a health story and a health story most probably about women. Women rarely make it to the news. How can a journalist who is so low in the decision-making ladder push for a health story to appear? Florence Machio: When I was in journalism school they taught me that any story can get to the front page, one just needs to look at what is going on at the time so that you can link it to the health story you are working on. Health can be linked to economics, politics,development…in short try to always link your story to what is current. Issa Almasarweh: Journalists are human and can like others be partial? For example, are there incidences where journalists’ views about the impact of huge industries on the environment and public health were influenced by pressure or incentives from these industries? Deborah Mesce: No doubt there are lots of examples of where a journalist takes a stand on an issue based on things other than journalistic objectivity—part of which is explained by the underlying political stances that newspapers and media houses may take. You might want to talk with some local journalists to get examples of industry dominating media. Many countries have government-controlled media, which runs the risk of not being sufficiently critical or holding the government accountable for improving health—or any other area for which government has responsibility. We don’t want to confuse journalism with public relations, whose function is to present news and information from their client’s perspective. Our goal in working with the media is to build journalists’ capacity to understand the health and population issues so that they can report objectively and raise the visibility of key health issues. Geoff Dabelko: Is it the news media’s role to hold governments accountable? Or do they provide the information that allows the public, or donors, or multilaterals to hold governments accountable? Semantic difference perhaps but I think you might get very different answers from journalists on what their proper roles are. It also suggests the answer depends in part on the level of freedom for the press in a given country. Deborah Mesce: The function of the media is to inform the public, and doing so in a way that empowers the public or sectors of the public can enable them to hold government accountable. At the same time, the media’s job is more than just reporting on the facts. It’s the media that have the means to investigate, for example. You’re right that the level of press freedom will determine the ability of the media, the public, donors, multilaterals, etc., to hold governments accountable. But without an informed media, they can’t begin to inform the public accurately. Sanjay Mishra: Media in most of the situations favors the ruling government and rest attentions pays to gossips and interesting news that too exaggerated news, thus public health like dull issues no more attracts to media. If we look this in developing context, Indian media . . . have very very limited space, especially if the concern is unpolitical. No clear cut analysis of the government policies on the issues of public health. . . . [Using] contraceptive and abortion pills without consulting medical practitioners are on rise in most parts of the country, but media especially TV channels are openly advising to take abortion pills in 36 hours of having sex. So how can media put pressure on the government as well as media/entertainment channels to prevent such things . . . .? Deborah Mesce: Just to set the record straight, I think you are talking about emergency contraception, not abortion pills, because it is emergency contraception that is taken within days of unprotected sex to prevent pregnancy. The distinction is important. As to your question, in many countries the news media operate differently from the entertainment media, but in any media, reporting on reproductive health and emergency contraception must be done accurately. Farzana Shahnaz Majid: The present govt has taken the initiative to establish community clinics in all upazila level. But media is not really taking proper role to improve the public health situation through strong policy advocay,criticism and suggession. Recenly The Anthrax outbreak in the northern portion in Bangladesh has become an alarming public health issue. To me it is really dissapointed to see that that the media in this area is such relactant and not taking any strong initiatives to make people aware and sensitize. Deborah Mesce: It would be unfortunate if the news media were not reporting on the anthrax threat. The media’s role is to inform, but not necessarily to advocate. I think the media should be able to hold the government accountable for its actions or inactions, but not take an advocacy stance on specific approaches (unless it’s done in an editorial or commentary.) Victoria Ebin: One way to improve local coverage of such public health issues is for the district health officers and local NGOs to develop ties with local media. But they shouldn’t wait for a crisis to take this step. Part of their on-going communication strategies should include developing and maintaining contacts with local journalists. Government and NGO communication staff need a list of local journalists who cover health and should send them regular updates. They can also conduct training workshops for journalists on health topics and organize press conferences, especially when there is an urgent health emergency. Nnenna Ike: I am Nnenna Ike from Nigeria. Nigerian journalists are facing multiple challenges to effectively carrying out their roles as independent monitors and evaluators of government promises in all aspects of the economy. They include the apparent lack of capacity to adequately investigate on health issues before reporting (as against just reporting events) and the love for financial gain (from non-performing government officials). Who is to blame for these two things? Please let us remember that it is not all practicing journalists that studied journalism and professional journalism courses are expensive to undertake. Also, quite a number of journalists go without salaries for some months. If they are not performing their roles properly, who takes the slack for their ineptitude? Victoria Ebin: Unfortunately, it’s the public that suffers when journalists cannot adequately perform their jobs. They miss out on their right to accurate information. You’ve noted some of the major obstacles to the media’s capacity to hold the government responsible for its promises to improve public health. The journalists “lack of capacity to adequately investigate health issues” has multiple causes. Lack of time, resources, and also lack of communication with health experts (which is not necessarily the fault of the journalists). Health experts often distrust the media and refuse to talk with them, making it impossible for journalists to obtain accurate information. A key factor in improving health reporting is better communication between the media and the health sector. Both sides need to work on developing this relationship because they each have valid complaints against the other. Journalists accuse health experts of wanting to use them as their publicity agents and health organizations accuse the media of practicing “envelopement” journalism (referring to cash-filled envelopes). Among the steps necessary to improving media ethics is adequately paying journalists for their work. Aumio Srizan: The constructive criticism of the government policies on public health by the news media is somehow missing or not prominent. Are the journalists properly reporting to the issues that are major public health concerns? The lack of follow up reports raised this question in my mind. Deborah Mesce: Lack of follow-up is definitely a problem, but so is understanding the issues. Some journalists don’t necessarily see their job as following up on a story. But I think they need to realize that most stories are dynamic, always changing. They need to ask, for example, what progress has been made on a project they earlier reported on or whether there are better, more effective ways of addressing a problem. They can look for successful projects and ask why they’re not being replicated in other areas. Just reporting on these projects can go some of the distance because policymakers also get their news from the news media and they may not necessarily be aware of such projects. Many a doctor has told me that they get as much news about HIV and AIDS from the newspaper as from their medical circles. Victoria Ebin: Reporting on governments’ public health policies often requires time and resources that are not available to all journalists. They also need the support of their media organizations and that, too, can be in short supply. But despite these obstacles, journalists in many countries are producing stories that call on their governments to improve public health policies, and the implementation of already-existing policies. In Senegal, a journalist’s story about a lack of contraceptives led to an investigation of the national supply pharmacy. In another example, a Malawian journalist reported on a government official’s misuse of AIDS funds. Tanzanian journalists’ reporting on contraceptive shortages contributed to a government decision to increase the budget line for family planning. These are just a few examples, but do show that that journalists in developing countries are struggling to carry out investigative reporting that leads to improved public health. Jamie Rosen: How can civil society organizations help journalists hold governments accountable for public health laws and commitments? Deborah Mesce: Good question. They can start by working with the media to make sure journalists understand the public health laws and commitments. When we work with journalists we rely on health experts, many from civil society organizations, to explain different aspects of reproductive health and how laws affect the way programs are implemented and ultimately how services are or are not rendered to the public. There needs to be two-way communication between journalists and CSOs. CSOs need to keep journalists apprised of situations that they may not know about. The flip side is that journalists need to recognize the expertise of CSOs but ask the right questions and report appropriately on what they find. Meskerem Bekele, Ethiopia: Hi, How are you? I think we are not poor in policy. As we know our country also has health policy. The Constitution (the supreme law of the land) and the Family Law strongly committed for public health. But when we come to implementation there is a gap. This gap couldn’t come only because of government but even because of public. When we come to journalists, we can’t make our responsibility effectively. For example, FGM is one of our harmful traditional practices and strictly forbidden by law. But last week when I was in one meeting, one of the laws professional told us she tried to look after if there is any recorded document, which talks about persons who were accused because of FGM but she couldn’t found in any police offices of Addis Ababa. Can we say there is no any Female Genital Mutilation? I don’t think. There is a gap between the government and… so, I think the government media and the journalists have the big responsibility for public health. Victoria Ebin: While the practice of FGM shows signs of decreasing in Ethiopia, there’s still a long way to go to eliminate it. Is it possible for journalists to track progress of the ministries responsible for the National Plan to stop FGM? Journalists could also contact the many NGOs working in this area and follow their activities in the field. Dr Bharat: Why are media exposing only the loopholes of Govt Health Services? The media must reflect Govts’ sincere efforts for resolving crisis, even watching human rights and the democratic arena. Deborah Mesce: I would argue that it’s not the media’s job to report on the government’s sincerity but rather on what it has done, is attempting to do or has not done. If government has produced positive results, then those should be reported, but the opposite is also true. As journalists say, when a dog bites a man, it’s not news. It is news when man bites the dog. So, reporting on a government’s good will is not necessarily news, but reporting on what it has accomplished or not is. Jones Lewis Arthur: Sections of the media is already ‘in bed’ with the governent of Ghana. My question is ‘how do we hold such media accountable in order to ensure that they act as watchdogs to censor government policies and ensure accountability?’ Victoria Ebin: In flagrant cases of a journalist’s violations of ethics, the media regulatory commissions can intervene, but it sounds like you’re referring to the more usual types of collusion between the media and the government. Ghana has laws that protect the state-owned media from government control, but journalists can take advantage of their position for their own gain. One way to lessen corruption is to make sure that the media organizations pay their journalists adequately. Can you count on the indepedent media that are not owned by politicians? In many countries, people turn to these print and broadcast media for more balanced reporting.
Everyone has worked with someone who refuses to pick up the phone, insisting that everything can be solved through email, IM or texting. You might do it yourself. The name and number of a difficult client appears on your caller ID and you let it go to voicemail. You tell yourself you can call back tomorrow, but the next day, you respond to the voicemail with an email instead. Many communicators even prefer electronic conversations when it comes to family. How many times has your mom texted you with a request to “please call me when you have a chance” and you text her back instead? As a communications pro, you know full well the misunderstandings that can occur with electronic communication. You understand how difficult it is to convey intent and tone electronically. Yet many will still opt for texting over an actual conversation. Why? Perhaps it’s because we don’t always know the best way to end a conversation. How do you politely say “goodbye” when you need to go? What about those clients who love to talk your ear off? Do you wait for a break in the conversation—or do you interrupt? What about the near-impossible task of getting off the phone with your mother? Here are a few tips and phrases to help you politely and professionally end phone conversations.
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BRANDS COLLECTIONS PRODUCTS This White Four Panel Post Operative Binder is 30cm (12 inches), Wide and has a large Velcro area for comfortable and firm fit. |75 - 117 cm |117 - 153 cm ALL DIMENSIONS ARE APPROXIMATE ALWAYS READ THE LABEL AND FOLLOW THE DIRECTIONS FOR USE
During emergencies, you want food that needs very little preparation time (if any) so you can preserve time and fuel. You also need a variety of nutrients to keep your muscles strong and your health at optimum levels. Ready Harvest is known for providing the healthiest foods in the industry to make sure you stay strong and have a clear mind during stressful emergency situations. Ready Harvest foods are all-natural, with no preservatives, artificial flavors or colors. Since they are freeze-dried or dehydrated, they can be eaten straight from the container dry or simply by adding water. They are truly “life-saving” foods! Also, Ready Harvest is known for having the highest fill lines as well. You get more food per can and less wasted space than competing brands. That equals value for you and your family! This food comes in top-notch food- storage cans (the most secure way of storing long-term food storage against rodents, moisture, etc.). When it comes to food for emergencies, you never want to take chances on your food being compromised. - GREEN VEGGIE GOODIES: Made with 100% pure fresh asparagus, no additives added. These are sourced and manufactured in the USA, providing you the best dried asparagus there is, better than frozen asparagus. - BACKPACKING FOOD, CAMPING FOOD: It’s easy to carry, making them a great option for outdoor activities. Add to it to freeze dried veggies and you now have the perfect dehydrated meals for backpacking. - VERSATILE: Add to stir fry, as a side-dish, asparagus salad, asparagus soup or any other vegetable soup. It’s also easy prep because there’s no need for washing ang cutting. Also, no more wasted asparagus! - EMERGENCY FOOD SUPPLY: Canned asparagus is a valuable addition to emergency food supplies. It has a long shelf life, making them ideal for disaster preparedness and situations where asparagus fresh organic may not be readily available. - GLUTEN-FREE, VEGAN-FRIENDLY, LOW CALORIES: Any vegan or non-vegan can have this.Great source for Vitamins A, C, K, folate. Minerals like potassium, phosphorus, manganese, copper. Other nutrients like inulin, asparagine, glutathione and rutin.
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Leadership Coach, Founder of Mastery Academy, author of Big Asian Energy (2025) About John Wang Born in Taiwan, John Wang immigrated to Canada as a child and credits his childhood with his focus on performance psychology and personal development. Certified in various fields like neurolinguistic programming and performance coaching, Wang founded the education business Mastery Academy, a successful professional coaching program whose students go on to graduate and work at companies like Google, Microsoft, and American Express. Wang is also the founder of the nonprofit organization, OneKindness Challenge, a movement that inspires people to perform one act of kindness every day. Called one of the “Leaders of Tomorrow” by Richmond News in British Columbia, Wang also worked as a market research interpreter for major corporations and organizations like Volvo, Mastercard, HSBC, and UNICEF, where he began to unpack the communication and cultural gaps that exist between societies. He noticed that millions of talented Asian American and underrepresented employees are left unseen for their leadership potential because they’ve been culturally conditioned to work hard and keep their heads down. This can lead them to burn out quickly and/or quit suddenly without explanation, hurting themselves and the companies they work for. Wang personally understands the stress of toxic overachievement and perfectionism. And after 15+ years of experience teaching and coaching Asian American overachievers, he has identified the seven most common patterns that cause employees to hold themselves back. He leads workshops, talks, and support groups to help audiences overcome their people-pleasing patterns and “hidden overachievers” get seen and recognized for their inner brilliance. Using practical, evidence-backed techniques on mindset and communication, Wang encourages teams and individual employees to create solutions so they can step into greater confidence, leadership, and empowerment. His book Big Asian Energy comes out in 2025. From Invisible to Unstoppable: How to Get Recognized for Your Brilliance How many "hidden overachievers"—including those in underrepresented groups like women and minorities—are under- or un-recognized for their performance and talent by their employers? How many potential leaders and stars remain undiscovered because they’re afraid to speak up for themselves and no one else is advocating for them? In this keynote, John Wang shares studies that demonstrate why many hidden superstars are leaving companies or feeling under-recognized for their work, and how to empower them to step into leadership. He also offers tangible techniques for those future leaders to embrace authentic leadership and self-advocacy principles that will help them shine. Seven Habits Holding You Back At Work In this empowering talk, Wang exposes the seven subconscious patterns that often drive our behaviors and cause us to hold back in the workplace. He shares a powerful framework on assertiveness, competence, and empathy that teaches audiences how to bridge existing gaps in communication to help them and their teams gain recognition for their valuable contributions. Breaking the Bamboo Ceiling: Breakthrough Techniques for Leadership In this keynote, Wang reveals the five myths surrounding Asian American professionals and the struggles they encounter due to differing cultural experiences and backgrounds. He also discusses how to navigate boundaries at work in a way that helps create better connection and how recognizing and identifying patterns of self-sacrifice early on can prevent employees from falling into patterns of burnout.Categories: Asian American and Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander Month Speakers, Business + Management Speakers, College + University Speakers, Diversity + Inclusion Speakers, Entrepreneurship Speakers, Leadership Speakers, Motivational + Inspirational Speakers, New Speakers, Productivity and Time Management Speakers - 212 572-2013
Surprise! You’ve Got Money! Here’s a quick guide to checking to see if you have unclaimed money. Related Content Jane Bond: Scaling the Ladder Agent Jane Bond is on the case, uncovering the mystery of bond laddering. Separating the Signal From the Noise A good professional provides important guidance and insight through the years. Silver Sneakers 101 Medicare’s popular program, offering free gym membership and health education.
The digital era has made B2B customer journeys more complex and, according to recent studies, there are now as many as 31 customer contact points in the modern buying process, from the first contact with the brand to the closing of the sale. Delivering appropriate content But here's the thing: only a small proportion of these are face-to-face interactions. That's why it's crucial to provide the right content at every stage of the customer journey, especially digitally and long before prospects get in touch with your sales team. Your content should not only be appealing, but also targeted. Hands-on business correspondence PrimeSoft recognizes the challenges at hand and offers practical solutions. With our primedocs template software, your employees can effortlessly create professional business correspondence - be it in the form of presentations, product sheets or emails - while ensuring that your CI/CD guidelines are adhered to at all times. Our template software supports you and your employees in providing the right content at every stage of the customer journey. This means you are ideally equipped for your well-informed customers.
Sewerage Drainage Pipes & Fittings Agriculture & Borewell Water Storage Tanks Surface Drainage System PTMT Tapware New Acquired two manufacturing plants of fairfax backed Chemplast Sanmar located at Kolhapur and Chennai,along with Trubore brand. First to move into Northern markets with a manufacturing plant at Haridwar. First among peers to demonstrate a risk appetite for inorganic growth. Early movers in the east with a unique assets light model. Startegically positioned in Bihar and Odisha, catering to the demand of the Eastern region.
Our phone hours are from 7:00 AM to 3:00 PM Central Time Monday through Friday. We are closed on Saturdays, Sundays, civic holidays and some holy days. If you call when we are closed you can leave a message and we will return your call during our normal customer service hours. |Religious Holy Days and |Mary, Mother of God (New Year’s Day) |Friday before Easter |Last Monday in May |First Monday in September |4th Thursday in November |December 22, 2023 through January 1, 2024
Yes, PROEX FOOD is also your place to go for packaging system integration. We have delivered several systems to add this level of automation, hygiene and precision to processing and packing lines. In this particular multihead weigher example, we show a little behind the scenes of a 2022 sweet corn cobette / medallion packaging integration. PROEX FOOD engineers designed a custom transportation system to go with a metering feeder to the multihead. We also designed other PROEX FOOD exclusive transport systems that we don’t show here. You get the right solution with the right technology for your line. While a multihead weigher integration can help you automate everything from corn to leafy green / lettuce / salad packing to IQF vegetables and many more. We will work with you to determine the right solution for your product and packaging needs, and fully integrate it to work with your processing line(s).
DEME’s Sea Installer gets heavy lift capacity boost DEME Offshore is making further moves in preparing its vessel to handle the next generation offshore wind turbines. DEME Offshore’s DP2 jack-up installation vessel Sea Installer will get a major crane upgrade from Huisman, increasing its capacity from 900 tonnes to 1,600 tonnes. The upgraded ‘Sea Installer’ will be deployed for the first time at the 800 MW Vineyard Wind 1 project, one of the first large-scale wind farms in the US. Vineyard Wind 1 will feature 62 GE Haliade-X offshore turbines. These giants have a 220 metre rotor, 107 metre blades and will be a staggering 248 metre high. To prepare for the future, DEME embarked on a multi-year fleet investment programme which the company claims has enabled it to have the most versatile and high-tech fleet in the industry today. DEME has also secured an option to upgrade the crane on jack-up installation vessel Sea Challenger. DEME Osshore’s Sea installer is currently being deployed at the Hornsea Two offshore wind farm in the UK. Vineyard Wind 1 will be the company’s first offshore wind project in the US.
Bourbon Offshore suspends listing after creditors demand debt French shipping company Bourbon Offshore is in serious danger of bankruptcy now that a group of creditors has demanded immediate payment of outstanding debt with a total value of USD 800 million. In a short press release, Bourbon Offshore said it has requested the suspension of its listing at the Euronext stock exchange in Paris. “Bourbon Corporation is examining available options and intends to pursue discussions with its creditors with the objective to take all appropriate measures to protect its interests and those of its personnel,” it added. If the creditors are not willing to negotiate new terms or arrangements, Bourbon Offshore has no other choice than to file for bankruptcy. The company, with a fleet of 500 vessels one of the largest offshore service providers in the world, has been in financial distress since the oil price dropped in 2014 and it is highly unlikely that the company will be able to secure USD 800 million. Additionally, the company is already in talks with another group of creditors who are willing to relieve Bourbon Offshore of EUR 1.4 billion in debt and provide EUR 120 million in fresh capital in exchange for 93% of the company’s shares. The creditor’s claim comes at a time when confidence in the oil price is returning. According to analyst firm Rystad Energy, 2019 is set to trump the new project investment levels of 2014 as oil majors have ramped up their exploration activities. So far, projects totalling a worth of USD 50 billion have been sanctioned this year. This number could grow to USD 123 billion if all projects awaiting final investment decision in 2019 are given the green light. In comparison: back in 2014, 74 offshore projects were sanctioned for nearly USD 78 billion. According to Rystad Energy, “this is yet another signal that the offshore industry has turned a corner.” If Bourbon Offshore will be able to enjoy this long-awaited market recovery remains a question, for now.
Insurance firm warns of scrubber corrosion problems Norwegian P&I club Gard reports of several cases in which scrubbers have caught fire or corroded within a year. The insurance company is warning shipping companies and their crew members to keep a close on the machinery. The new sulphur regulation is fast approaching and it is estimated that nearly 3,000 vessels will have scrubbers installed by the beginning of next year. For the majority of owners and their crew members, scrubber systems are new technology and teething problems can be expected, Gard warns. “Scrubber waste is corrosive, and we have seen a few incidents where within 10 to 15 months of the open-loop scrubber being installed, corrosion of the overboard distance piece or in its immediate vicinity has resulted in water ingress into areas such as the engine room, ballast tanks and cargo holds”, the insurance firm reports. Gard emphasizes the importance of having properly applied protective coatings as poor application of paint on the inside of the pipe, welds and hull plating near the wash water discharge were identified as the causes of accelerated corrosion. In all these cases, the ships had to return to the yard for reparations, which can be a costly exercise. Gard also warns of problems as a result of thermal shock. A vessel equipped with an open-loop scrubber sustained damage to the nozzles, demister housing and the drains after cold seawater was pumped into a hot scrubber. The vessel had to change over to low sulphur fuel when visiting a Northern European port that has banned the discharge of washwater from open-loop scrubbers. The scrubber, however, was still required to run in dry mode to allow for the passage of hot exhaust gasses with a temperature of nearly 400° C. When the washwater pumps were started again following the departure of the port, the rapid temperature change damaged the system. There have also been several fire incidents during the installation of scrubbers, where sparks from welding, metal cutting, and other hot work activities fell into the inner chamber of the scrubber through uncovered openings, and in one case the fire also spread to the engine room through glass reinforced epoxy piping. Heat generated from the steel cutting for the supporting brackets also contributed to the build-up of heat inside the scrubber. “In all these cases the yard fire fighting team responded and extinguished the fire with vital assistance from the crew”, Gard reports. It is not the first bad press for scrubber systems. Last month, a video of a scrubber failure went viral on social media. In the video, huge amounts of water were leaking down into the engine room. Although unconfirmed, many experts expected corrosion of the scrubber system to be the problem.
Project Launches Digital Archive of Past Yearbook Chapters We are excited to announce the launch of a digital archive of chapters from past volumes of Project Censored’s yearbook series. The new web pages feature selections from the Censored and State of the Free Press yearbooks, covering topics such as Déjà Vu News, Junk Food News, News Abuse, and Media Democracy in Action, plus selected case studies and media analyses, dating back to 2007. These valuable resources are now available free of charge to educators, researchers, and the general public on our website. Kate Horgan, who designed the new web pages, noted: “The addition of this expansive digital archive will act as a vital resource for students, educators, and researchers looking to utilize critical pieces from Project Censored’s publications. We are eager to continue building this resource and offering content that is free and accessible for our supporters.” Censored Press Happenings: Media and Me Authors Featured at UNESCO Symposium and CMLCA The UNESCO symposium on Democracy, Global Citizenship, and Transformative Education, which takes place in Quebec, Canada, and online, October 25-27, 2023, will include a panel on Teaching Critical Media Literacy as a Liberatory Practice, featuring Allison Butler, Nolan Higdon, Mickey Huff, and Andy Lee Roth, all coauthors of The Media and Me, and Micah Card, who created the Teaching Guide for the book. The online panel will be live-streamed on Zoom, Facebook, and YouTube from 4:30-5:30 PM Eastern Time on Thursday, October 26th. UNESCO is the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. Follow this link for more information about the symposium, including how to register (at no charge) for any of the streaming panels. The Fourth Annual Critical Media Literacy Conference of the Americas (CMLCA) will be held October 27-29 in Argentina at the Instituto Provincial de Educación Superior “Paulo Freire.” This year’s theme addresses “Advances in Artificial Intelligence: Impacts on Education and Media.” A Project Censored cohort, including Robin Andersen, avram anderson, Allison Butler, Amy Forbes, Nolan Higdon, Mickey Huff, Steve Macek, and Andy Lee Roth, will present a virtual panel on Censorship, Digital Media and the Global Crack Down on Freedom of Expression. The presentation takes place over Zoom on Friday, October 27, at 3:30 PM Pacific Time. Media, Education, and Democracy: Bridging Past and Future The Media, Inequality, and Change Center (MIC) at the University of Pennsylvania’s Annenberg School for Communication hosted this year’s Union for Democratic Communications (UDC) conference in Philadelphia. This was the first time the UDC met in person since the beginning of the pandemic. Project Censored’s own Steve Macek, Andy Lee Roth, Nolan Higdon, Allison Butler, Mickey Huff, Robin Andersen, Reagan Haynie, and Mischa Geracoulis were among the many esteemed speakers on the program, all coming together to discuss the future of critical media literacy and democracy. The Project would like to extend a sincere thank you to Victor Pickard, the MIC Center and Briar Smith, Annenberg staff and students, and Russell Newman, Aaron Heresco, and all of the UDC organizers for putting on a wonderful event. Supported by a grant that promotes the Project’s educational programs for students and teachers, Project Censored donated more than one hundred copies of Censored Press titles, including the most recent State of the Free Press yearbook and The Media and Me: A Guide to Critical Media Literacy for Young People, to conference participants. We enjoyed watching people’s reactions when we told them the book titles they were interested in were available at no charge. Stay tuned in the coming weeks for recorded interviews and exclusive footage from the conference. Nolan Higdon and Allison Butler authored Students or Data Mines? Education Trains AI by Exploiting Students and Faculty about the consequences of using AI in education, including the lack of consideration for the economic exploitation of faculty and students whose data trains AI. Their article emphasized the need for substantive conversations about mitigating school surveillance, suggesting policy makers recognize how AI threatens the classroom. “Books are not just stories; they are lifelines.” In The Rising Political Battle Over Censorship, Da’Taeveyon Daniels, the Youth Honorary Chair for Banned Books Week 2023, discussed the threats posed by book bans to humanity, acceptance, and understanding. “In academic spaces from coast to coast,” Daniels wrote, “the increasingly politicized, rising tide of book bans and challenges is washing away voices that need to be heard.” In How Big Media Facilitate Israeli War Crimes in Gaza, Robin Andersen wrote about the corporate media’s failure to report on the historical context of the ongoing crisis in Gaza, the rapid spread of war propaganda, and the relentless dehumanization of Palestinians. Andersen charged, “US establishment media should consider these humanitarian narratives, in contrast to their standard militarized revenge frames, which only fan the flames of genocide that imperil the Palestinian people.” Find the complete archives of Project Censored’s Dispatches on Media and Politics series here. The Project Censored Show Eleanor Goldfield spoke with economist and author Dr. Richard Wolff about establishing democracy in the workplace and achieving empowerment beyond the labor strike. Later in the show, Mickey Huff spoke with Eleanor about her newest documentary film, To The Trees, which explores forest defense tactics in Northern California, examining society’s relationship to nature and how that dynamic remains crucial to survival. In commemoration of Banned Books Week’s 41st year, Mickey dedicated a recent show to celebrating and promoting the freedom to read, discussing a surge in book challenges; attempts by conservative parental groups to shape curricula, particularly concerning themes of marginalized groups, including LGBTQ+ issues, works by people of color, and others; and the myriad ways censorship harms young people. Mickey spoke with Betsy Gomez, coordinator for the Banned Books Week Coalition; Cameron Samuels, 2022 Youth Honorary Chair of Banned Books Week; Da’Taeveyon Daniels, BBW’s 2023 Youth Honorary Chair; and Jonah Winter, award-winning author of many children’s books, including his latest, Banned Book. Ellen Barfield joined Eleanor to unpack the RICO (Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations) charges brought by the state of Georgia in 2009 against Barfield’s husband, Dr. Lawrence Egbert, and now against Stop Cop City organizers. In the show’s second half, activist Palta provided updates on the continued attacks against Stop Cop City organizers by the city of Atlanta and the state of Georgia. Gaza was the focus of Eleanor’s interview with Nora Barrows-Friedman, the associate editor at The Electronic Intifada, who rebutted common Israeli and US talking points and identified Zionism as the actual obstacle to peace. Then Shealeigh Voitl, Project Censored’s digital and print editor, told Mickey about her most recent research publications, including an article in The Progressive about fundamental differences in how corporate media and community media cover gun violence, another on how entertainment-industry publications feature biased coverage of the Hollywood writers’ strike, and a third on threats to freedom of information and privacy posed by the “EARN IT” Act.
Published on Sep 03, 2023 We consider a scenario where a sophisticated jammer jams an area in a single-channel wireless sensor network. The jammer controls the probability of jamming and transmission range to cause maximal damage to the network in terms of corrupted communication links. The jammer action ceases when it is detected by a monitoring node in the network, and a notification message is transferred out of the jamming region. The jammer is detected at a monitor node by employing an optimal detection test based on the percentage of incurred collisions. On the other hand, the network computes channel access probability in an effort to minimize the jamming detection plus notification time. In order for the jammer to optimize its benefit, it needs to know the network channel access probability and number of neighbors of the monitor node. Accordingly, the network needs to know the jamming probability of the jammer. We study the idealized case of perfect knowledge by both the jammer and the network about the strategy of one another, and the case where the jammer or the network lacks this knowledge. The latter is captured by formulating and solving optimization problems, the solutions of which constitute best responses of the attacker or the network to the worst-case strategy of each other. We also take into account potential energy constraints of the jammer and the network. We extend the problem to the case of multiple observers and adaptable jamming transmission range and propose a intuitive heuristic jamming strategy for that case. Multi-channel wireless networks utilize several orthogonal frequency bands to eliminate interference between parallel transmissions and hence, improve the network capacity. Due to their increased performance compared to single-channel networks, they are being integrated into various network architectures, such as mobile ad hoc, vehicular, sensor, wireless local area, mesh, and cognitive radio networks. The increased capacity of multi-channel networks can be translated into actual throughput only if critical network functions such as channel allocation and routing are efficiently coordinated. These functions are collaboratively coordinated by exchanging messages on a broadcast channel known as the control channel. From a security point of view, convergence on a pre-assigned control channel constitutes a single point of failure. An adversary can severely degrade the network performance by launching a Denial of Service (DoS) attack on the control channel, thus negating any gain due to the availability of multiple data channels. A sophisticated adversary can intelligently utilize jamming to attack higher-layer functionalities and deny network availability at a very small energy cost. System : Pentium IV 2.4 GHz. Hard Disk : 40 GB. Floppy Drive : 1.44 Mb. Monitor : 15 VGA Colour. Mouse : Logitech. Ram : 512 Mb S/W System Configuration:- Operating system : - Windows XP. Coding Language : - JAVA,JFC (Java Swing),J2ME, RMI.
This is the ‘holy grail’ of attacks on LLM-based applications. It’s the main threat addressed in the OWASP Top 10 for LLM. X is flooded with real life examples of this attack, showing its dominance. But what really is prompt injection, and is it a real threat that poses a significant risk to your customer-facing applications and company? What is Prompt Injection? Prompt injection is any prompt where attackers manipulate a large language model (LLM) through carefully crafted inputs to behave outside of its desired behavior. This manipulation, often referred to as "jailbreaking", tricks the LLM into executing the attacker's intentions. This threat becomes particularly concerning when the LLM is integrated with other tools such as internal databases, APIs, or code interpreters, creating a new attack surface. Until now, our approach to accessing UIs/APIs was based on a structured format, relying on expected inputs. However, the new paradigm brought by LLMs introduces an overwhelming influx of diverse tokens into our system at an unprecedented pace. Furthermore, leveraging the capabilities of LLMs, we not only embrace this unstructured and unpredictable input but also channel it downstream through internal services such as APIs, databases, code execution, and more, allowing it to work its magic. In essence, we now accommodate exponentially more inputs than before and empower it to influence more services than ever. Types of Prompt Injection There are several types of prompt injection, with different levels of technical depth and complexity. In this introductory blog post we’ll give an overview of the main types. Direct Prompt Injection In this ‘classic’ approach, the system expects a text prompt from the user. Instead, the user formulates the prompt with the intention of influencing the language model (LLM) to deviate from its intended behavior. A prevalent strategy involves instructing the LLM to disregard its prior system directives and instead follow the user's instructions. Naturally, this process is becoming increasingly intricate, as individuals develop AI systems for both offensive and defensive purposes, but this is the fundamental concept behind direct prompt Injection. Indirect Prompt Injection Another form of prompt injection is known as indirect prompt injection, where adversarial instructions are introduced through a third-party data source, such as a web search or API call. For instance, in a conversation with Bing chat, which has internet search capabilities, you may instruct it to explore a random website. If this website contains malicious prompts, cleverly concealed as white text, Bing chat might unwittingly read and comply with these instructions. What distinguishes this from direct injection is that you are not explicitly instructing Bing chat to convey certain information; instead, you are guiding it to an external resource that may contain manipulative content. This characterizes an indirect injection attack, where the problem is initiated not by the user or the language model but by a malicious third party. In the video below, an example illustrates how the entire context of a conversation, including sensitive information, is leaked to a third-party website due to manipulation of ChatGPT. Visual Prompt Injection As GenAI apps evolve into multi-modal systems capable of processing diverse inputs, such as images, the potential for injection arises from various origins. In such scenarios, the textual prompt might be entirely benign, while the image itself could harbor malicious instructions. These instructions might be cleverly formatted and colored to remain imperceptible to users. The following example illustrates how GPT-4 was deceived into providing a wholly different response due to concealed and manipulative instructions embedded within the accompanying image. Why is it so hard to block prompt injections? In the past, most security layers relied on heuristics, pattern matching, regex, unsafe tokens, and similar methods. However, with the shift to an unstructured interface, the challenge has become significantly more complex. Now, the system must handle various types of inputs, in multiple languages, with varying token counts, across diverse application use cases, cultures, and user bases. The possibilities for both correct and incorrect inputs are virtually limitless. Consequently, in combating the continuous and infinite nature of these possibilities, the most effective approach involves employing models that can autonomously generate an infinite array of possibilities. It's crucial to emphasize that this is not a problem with a definitive solution; there won't be a foolproof remedy. However, the goal is to implement a solution that significantly complicates the attacker's efforts, making their task much more challenging. How risky are prompt injections? Honestly, it depends. But what we know is that the scope and diversity of prompt injection has reached unprecedented levels in the realm of cybersecurity. On one end of the spectrum, you might manipulate language models (LLMs) to speak like a pirate or respond with cheesy jokes – a rather trivial and perhaps unremarkable outcome. In the middle of the spectrum, exemplified by the recent Chevrolet case, you could prompt a GenAI app to provide embarrassing, potentially brand-damaging, or legally complicated responses. While it may not lead to a direct offensive attack causing infrastructure downtime and substantial financial losses, it's still a scenario one would prefer to avoid. On the other extreme end of the spectrum, especially in the evolving landscape of agents, when LLMs are getting more and more integrated into a company's assets like APIs, DBs, code execution, services, etc. , prompt injection becomes riskier, even super risky. This is essentially like SQL injection on steroids, because then we had only SQL as input and the DB as a target, and now you have multiple targets (any tool the LLM can access or impact), and the input is infinitely wider than SQL; it can be English, Chinese, Python, or numeric—everything is on the table. No rules. This attack surface is opening the door from your own chat UI to attacks like remote malicious code execution, privilege escalation, SQL injection, unauthorized data access, DDoS, and more. So what can we do about all of this? Firstly, it's crucial to monitor your system to detect anomalies and conduct retrospective investigations. Following that, you can strengthen your prompts to make them less susceptible to malicious inputs. This involves emphasizing the role of the language model (LLM) app and ensuring a clear separation between system and user prompts. Introducing a human intermediary is an option, although it may not be ideal as the entire concept is to minimize human involvement. Alternatively, you could employ another LLM to assess user prompts. However, this approach may be expensive and could impact latency. Consider rejecting prompts containing specific substrings or using similarity metrics to identify known prompt injection patterns. Yet, these methods might not generalize well and may result in numerous false positives. In essence, maintaining an LLM-based application in production without a dedicated security solution seems challenging. A specialized security solution designed to detect prompt injections, contextualized to your application's use case, optimized for latency, and knowledgeable about past prompt injection attempts is essential. Such a solution should continuously evolve to thwart new attack methodologies at the speed of Generative AI.
Avenga has been welcomed as a new tenant of the Infinity office building. Its new office will occupy over 700 sqm of modern space located on the 6th floor. The company will move to Infinity in Q2 2024. „We are happy that another new technology company has joined the Infinity’s tenant roster. Exce...[…]
Lodha Crown will be constructed on 4 acres of land parcel that will be developed phase wise, with first phase launched as of now consisting of 2 towers with each tower of Ground + 23 Floors having 1 BHK & 2 BHK premium residences. Coming to the location part - Lodha Thane Project is located Opposite Lodha Amara, Kolshet, Thane West with Ghodbunder Road - 1.2 Kms, Dmart Kolshet - 1.6 Kms, R-Mall Thane - 1.8 Kms, Manpada Metro station - 2 Kms, Kapubawdi Junction - 3 Kms and Majiwada Junction - 3.3 Kms from the project. Now Lodha Crown Kolshet amenities part - As said, Project will have 40+ ultra luxury amenities with likes of - 60% Open Spaces with Lush Old Trees, Views of 70,000 Sq.Ft. Central Green Plaza, Serene View of The Creek from Your Deck, Large Swimming Pool with Deck, 30,000 sq ft Clubhouse, Kids Pool, Gymnasium, Amphitheater, Skating Rink, Exercise Station, Badminton Court, Basketball Practice Court and many more. Coming to the Lodha Group Projects carpet area - As said project has 1 BHK & 2 BHK residences with 1 BHK carpet area range of 320 to 350 sq ft and 2 BHK range of 520 to 550 sq ft usable carpet area. Now let’s discuss Lodha new launch in thane booking process - Booking window of the project will be open soon, Client will then can come & visit the site, Our sales team will explain the complete project details, will share the pricing & payment schemes & will show the sample flat also & then if the client likes it, then they can book by paying a token amount of Rs 50000. Lodha Kolshet Road Thane price & its details can be known at the price section & Lodha Group Crown brochure can be downloaded from the link mentioned below. Project has been praised by the home buyers & Lodha Kolshet Project reviews is 4 out of 5 from over all the clients who have visited the site. |Investing In The Best Location 56.99 lacs (All In) |2 BHK with Deck 92.99 lacs (All In) Site & Floor Plan 2 BHK with Deck CROWN KOLSHET Spread across ~4 acres, the development is planned around lush green old trees and ~60% open spaces. With assortment of world-class amenities and well-designed 1 and 2 BHK apartments offering breath-taking views, Crown Kolshet gives you the opportunity to upgrade to a superior lifestyle At Lodha, our passion is to create landmarks that meet global standards, epitomise the values of our family, and are built on a legacy of trust spanning four decades. We are guided by our vision of ‘Building a Better Life’. Lodha enables and transforms you to be a better version of yourself by maximising your potential and leading a flourished life. All our developments deliver the highest level of design and craftsmanship, uncompromising quality, unparalleled service – putting Lodha developments in the league of the world’s finest. Our homes are designed to enable more productivity, amenities designed and curated to equip with opportunity! Be it greens/open spaces designed to live a healthier and fuller life or gentry to match like-mindedness, banquets and club houses to network or striking the right chord with the right people, Lodha ensures that your next biggest milestone, is within reach. At Lodha, our passion is to create landmarks that meet global standards, epitomise the values of our family, and are built on a legacy of trust spanning four decades. We are guided by our vision of ‘Building a Better Life’ and believe that homes transform lives. A home is a springboard for the dreams and aspirations, for living a healthier and fulfilled life. Every one of our developments delivers the highest level of design and craftsmanship...
PHOTO: Ashley Church exposed the attitudes for the “myths they are”. Photo credit: Image – Newshub A property commentator and investor has lamented Kiwis’ apparent lack of appreciation for property investors. Ashley Church wrote an article on property website One Roof titled: “Why do Kiwis want to tear down property investors.” Church wrote that Kiwis enjoy watching super-rich people living their lavish lifestyles on reality TV, but when it’s seen in those around us the switch is flicked. “If a Kiwi dares to engage in the same ostentatious luxury we’ll eventually tear him or her to pieces.” He wrote that many theories suggest why this behaviour exists, with one being a feature of the cultural cringe “which hangs over our nation like a dark shadow”. “And manifests itself as tall poppy syndrome and a bizarre belief that we shouldn’t get above our station nor, God forbid, do better than our peers.” Church said no matter the reason, it’s a behaviour that brings the best and worst out of us. “At its best, it’s the basis of the sense of fairness and fair play that underpins our desire to protect our most vulnerable and makes us the warm, welcoming people that we (usually) are to visitors and new residents. “At its worst, it’s behind our nasty tendency to attack those who have succeeded and revel in the misfortune of those who fall on hard times after a period of success,” he added. The investor looked at some of the common beliefs and attitudes and “exposed them for the myths that they are”. He pointed to the assumption that people who invest in property are well-educated, which he said isn’t always the case. “Lots of educated Kiwis invest in property – but again, that isn’t the basis of their success – and many thousands of others invest in the market without the benefit of having any form of formal education.” READ MORE VIA NEWSHUB
Fill Out The Form Below and Receive your FREE Quote Today H-2A Farm Labor Contractor Bonds are individually underwritten so the cost can vary and is primarily dependent on the credit score of the applicant as well as experience; sometimes, business financials may be required depending on credit standing and the surety bond amount. Customers with good credit scores (generally 680 or higher) could qualify for rates as low as 1% of the bond amount (so, $100 for a $10,000 bond). Of course, we will always provide you with the lowest rates available on the market. And can typically handle all credit types — from excellent to poor — as such those terms vary. The H-2A Farm Labor Contractor Bond assures the principal will comply with the many rules and requirements for being certified including fair treatment, payment of wages and benefits, and working conditions. These provisions are found in Section 501.9 and 20 CFR part 655 subpart B of the Code of Federal Regulations. The U.S. Department of Labor requires the H-2A Surety Bond for Farm Labor Contractors. As such, the Obligee on the bond is the Administrator, Wage and Hour Division, United States Department of Labor, 200 Constitution Avenue, NW., Room S-3502, Washington, DC 20210. The H-2A Temporary Farm Labor Bond runs through the term of each approved work order (less than one year) and must remain in force for two years after the work under the order has been completed. This surety bond may be canceled or terminated with at least 45 days’ notice from the Surety. Contact The ProSure Group. As surety bond experts in business over 23 years in Florida, The ProSure Group has handled numerous bonds of this type and has partnerships with more than 30 different surety companies. This ensures that we get you the best, most competitive pricing and terms available in the marketplace. You just need to complete our simple application and one of our specialists will quickly contact you. There are many forms and requirements that need to be met before performing any “farm labor contracting activities.” To simplify the process, the U.S. Department of Labor allows employers to submit their H-2A applications electronically. The Department also provides a Quick Start Guide and User Manual online that will help provide instructions for completing and submitting the entire H-2A application package. Farm labor employment contractors are required to apply for a Certificate of Registration from the U.S. DoL. The required application form is Form WH-530. Once the application is approved, you will be issued a Farm Labor Contractor (FLC) Certificate of Registration; at that time you may begin to engage in the authorized activities. There may be additional forms/documentation required depending upon the specific activities of which are being sought for authorization. It is best to reach out to the Dept. of Labor with any questions regarding the application process. |H-2A Farm Labor Contractor Bond |U.S. Department of Labor, Wage and Hour Division |Get Bonded Now
Albany, NY — The Build Back Better Act will deliver long-overdue relief to New York families by lowering insurance premiums, giving Medicare the power to negotiate for lower drug prices, expanding Medicare benefits to cover hearing, and investing $150 billion in home care for seniors and people with disabilities. By voting against Build Back Better, Representatives Andrew Garbarino (NY-02), Claudia Tenney (NY-22), and John Katko (NY-24) voted against lowering health care costs for working families — despite overwhelming support from their own constituents. “Time and again, Republicans are failing the people of New York on health care,” said Protect Our Care Chair Leslie Dach. “New Yorkers from all walks of life support policies to lower drug prices, expand coverage, improve care for seniors, and level the playing field for working families, but Republicans continue to put industry profits ahead of their constituents. By opposing Build Back Better, Republicans proved they are out of touch with the economic and health worries that keep families up at night. Just like their attempts to destroy the Affordable Care Act, this vote will haunt the GOP for years to come.” Here’s what Republicans’ vote against Build Back Better means: Republicans Voted For Higher Drug Prices Republicans Opposed Giving Medicare The Power To Negotiate Lower Drug Prices. For nearly 20 years, Medicare has been banned from negotiating the price of prescription drugs, and Big Pharma has been able to dictate prices while Americans pay three times more for their medications than people in other countries. Representatives Garbarino, Tenney, and Katko voted with their Big Pharma allies to continue to block Medicare from negotiating the prices for select drugs purchased at the pharmacy counter and administered at the doctor’s office. Representatives Garbarino, Tenney, and Katko Opposed Capping Out-Of-Pocket Spending For Seniors. Republicans voted against helping seniors with serious conditions like cancer, multiple sclerosis, and rheumatoid arthritis save thousands of dollars on prescriptions, by opposing the Build Back Better Act which caps Medicare Part D out-of-pocket costs for prescription drugs at $2,000 per year beginning in 2024. Republicans Voted Against Lowering the Price of Insulin. Representatives Garbarino, Tenney, and Katko opposed capping insulin co-pays for all Americans with insurance at $35 each month. Republicans Voted To Allow Unlimited Price Increases On Prescription Drugs. Representatives Garbarino, Tenney, and Katko voted against stopping Big Pharma from raising prices faster than the rate of inflation as part of the Build Back Better Act. This cap will apply to all Americans, no matter whether you are insured or not, and no matter what kind of insurance you have, and is essential to stop arbitrary price increases on essential medications. Republicans Voted For Higher Health Insurance Premiums Republicans Voted Against Helping Nine Million Americans Save On Monthly Premiums. Representatives Garbarino, Tenney, and Katko voted against helping nine million Americans save an average of $600 annually on their premiums when they buy insurance on their own through the ACA Marketplaces. For a family of four making $80,000 a year, premiums will drop nearly $250 a month, or nearly $3,000 a year. Republicans Opposed Premium Relief For Middle Income Families. The Build Back Better ensures families above will pay no more than 8.5 percent of their income towards health coverage. This will help middle-income families facing excessive premiums or living in high-premium areas. Republicans Voted Against Expanding Medicare Benefits Republicans Voted Against Giving Access To Hearing Care To Millions Of Seniors. Representatives Garbarino, Tenney, and Katko voted against adding hearing coverage to Medicare Part B starting in 2023. Kaiser Family Foundation estimates that a Medicare hearing benefit could aid all 62 million Medicare beneficiaries, particularly the 36 million purchasing coverage on their own or simply going without. Republicans Opposed Health Care For Mothers Republicans Voted Against Providing 12 Months Of Continuous Coverage To Women Following Childbirth. Representatives Garbarino, Tenney, and Katko voted to deny 12 months of continuous coverage to postpartum women on Medicaid. In 2018, 45 percent of births were paid for by Medicaid, with 50 percent or more births covered by the program in 22 states. Medicaid covers 65 percent of all births to Black mothers. Republicans Voted Against Funding Health Equity Measures To Reduce Maternal Deaths. The Build Back Better Act includes $295 million to bolster and diversify the perinatal health workforce, including funding for midwives and doulas whose involvement is essential to reducing maternal deaths. An additional $100 million has been included for maternal mental health equity and $50 million for maternal health research at Minority-Serving Institutions. Republicans Voted Against Extending And Protecting Health Insurance Coverage for Children (CHIP) Representatives Garbarino, Tenney, and Katko Voted Against Permanent Funding For The Children’s Health Insurance Program. Republicans voted against the Build Back Better Act, which provides for a permanent extension of the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP). Republicans Voted Against Keeping Children on Medicaid For A Full Year. The Build Back Better Act requires states to provide 12-month continuous coverage for children on Medicaid and CHIP. States that don’t provide continuous coverage experience increased churn, or children who dis-enrolled and re-enrolled in coverage within the same year. Republicans Voted Against Expanding Home And Community-Based Services To Allow Americans To Grow Old At Home Representatives Garbarino, Tenney, and Katko Opposed Allowing Millions of Americans To Grow Old At Home. Medicaid is currently the largest provider of home and community-based care, providing essential services to seniors and people with disabilities. Republicans voted against the Build Back Better Act, which will provide an additional $150 billion for home and community-based services, that would provide care to the 2.5 million Americans already participating in the program, and help alleviate the current waitlist of more than 800,000 individuals. Federally provided home and community-based services funds helped more than 100,000 individuals return to their homes and communities from nursing facilities between 2008 and 2019, highlighting the enormous need for Build Back Better to strengthen this essential program. Republicans Voted Against Helping Families Save An Estimated $5,800 In Home Care Costs. Older Americans and people with disabilities are often forced to liquidate their assets to afford as little as two years of in-home care. The HCBS provisions included in the Build Back Better Act will save families paying out-of-pocket an estimated $5,800 a year for four hours of care per week.
The Big Brother of bingo and lotteries, Keno has them all: fun, excitement, entertainment and possible huge winnings. If you love the thrills of bingo and the huge possible winnings of lottery, you have a winner with keno, one of the most famous games of all time. Experiencing the game at first might be confusing, but with a little preparation you can get your facts straight and enjoy one game that’s like no other… except bingo and the lottery. Keno is a game originating from China. It was brought to the US in the 1800s by Chinese immigrants. For a while keno was a racehorse betting game, but this feature of the game was removed in 1951 because casinos didn’t want people to think keno is a horse betting game. Still, the game is called a race at most casinos even to this day. How to play keno You get a sheet of 80 numbers from which you can mark up to 20 at the time, however you want. The numbers are arranged in 8 rows of 10. When the marking is complete, you give the card to a writer and place your bet on the selected number. At the end of the betting session, 20 random numbers are selected. The 20 numbers are then drawn, after which the winning tickets are being paid according to a payment table which varies from casino to casino. One common example is the four-spot ticket. With this payment option, if you bet $1 you get $1 for two correct number, $5 for three, or $120 for 4. These payments vary from provider to provider. In the online spectrum, the rules are basically the same with few exceptions, again based on the casino. Keno on the blockchain Keno has now been adapted successfully on the blockchain. The hybrid lottery/bingo game comes with a provably fair algorithm that ensures every single hand you play is verifiable and fairly randomized. This is one feature you will never find amongst the traditional, online or offline casinos anywhere on Earth. Because of this, more and more keno players are turning to the blockchain for playing their favourite game. Moreover, the keno you’ll encounter on a blockchain-based casino is completely customizable, giving you the chance to create a gambling experience just for you, to enjoy and master.
When public health departments support all aspects of the public’s well-being – beginning with striking at the roots of health inequity – it can create transformational change. Part of this process is encouraging people in communities to determine their own futures – to express agency – something that is rooted in action and power. So, how does local public health get there? We already have examples of success. For instance, local public health departments have been at the forefront of health equity work by building internal capacity and infrastructure, fostering strategic community partnerships to build power and engage in social justice work, and working across government agencies to develop shared ownership for health equity. However, although these examples exist, all too often public health’s efforts fail to improve population health – and often because of the fear of failure. There is fear of trying new initiatives that might not work out. There is fear of running out of time, will, allies, and money. There is fear of not meeting funders’ expectations, even when their expectations do not align with the community’s needs. There is fear of going against the governing bodies, such as mayors and other officials, even when their agendas may conflict with the community’s needs. And, underlying all of this, is the fear of losing ever-dwindling vital resources. Addressing the roots of health inequity requires operating out of a social justice – and not just a medical – framework. In their role as scientists, public health practitioners can no longer shy away from addressing issues of unequal power and structural bias, such as racism. While Bridging Health and Community’s (BH&C) 12 Principles are not new to public health practitioners, how they are framed within the context of building community agency is powerful. They describe an inclusive, participatory, and responsive processes to create a holistic shift in how healthy communities might be developed. Too often, we in local public health inadvertently perpetuate the problems we are looking to address – especially when we exclude the community’s voice in our efforts. It renders our work fragmented and narrowly focused on specific health conditions, rather than being a holistic approach that appreciates and responds to how good or bad health is the result of the many systems that serve a community, and the intersections between them. As a framework for overcoming this narrowness, the 12 Principles resonate strongly with how NACCHO and local public health departments should – and often do – engage the communities we serve. For example, the 12 Principles directly correspond with our Mobilizing for Action through Planning and Partnerships (MAPP) approach for guiding health departments and their cross-sectoral partners to work collaboratively to improve community health through health assessment and planning. What does addressing the roots of health inequity look like in practice? At BH&C’s May 2017 symposium, Community Agency & Health, the session Designing and Testing New Business Models, facilitated by Jodie Lesh of Kaiser Permanente described one such effort. I was inspired by her presentation describing how staff realized Kaiser was underserving key South Los Angeles communities. Despite having more members than wealthier communities, South Los Angeles did not have the equivalent number of doctors and facilities. Kaiser found it was unintentionally reinforcing the structures and beliefs that often prevent services and economic opportunities from being located in communities, particularly communities of color, which have been historically disadvantaged. This prompted Kaiser to go against the forces that traditionally drive their work, and to do things differently to correct the problem. Echoing the 12 Principles, one of NACCHO’s partners, Human Impact Partners, has developed a full range of strategic practices rooted in the theory that to systematically dismantle the patterns of othering and exclusion in government practice, we must pursue wall-to-wall transformation of how local health departments work, internally, with communities, and alongside other government agencies. This inside/outside approach requires health departments to build internal capacity and a will to act on the social determinants of health and health equity. These practices clearly align with the 12 Principles and are articulated in HIP’s HealthEquityGuide.org website, a remarkable resource with inspiring examples of how health departments have advanced health equity, both internally (within their departments) and externally (with communities and other government agencies). Of particular note are more than 25 detailed case studies from departments that describe how they advanced their practice, as well as more than 150 resources from allied organizations and others to advance the strategic practices. The Health Equity Guide clearly documents how the 12 Principles are made real in communities. A local health official once commented that the role of local public health is to be the mirror and conscience of the communities they serve, bringing the health and health disparities data to the community to raise awareness of what needs to be addressed and the consequences of inaction. For local public health to truly support community agency, this consciousness raising needs to be done in coalition with the communities they serve, respecting not just professional knowledge, but also community knowledge. By acknowledging that communities have agency, rather than conceiving of residents as victims who need our help, we can contribute to some of the key elements that cultivate community agency: transparency, full participation and accountability for decision-making.
Survey of rehabilitation support for children 0-15 years in a rural part of Kenya. Bunning K., Gona JK., Odera-Mung'ala V., Newton CR., Geere J-A., Hong CS., Hartley S. PURPOSE: Information regarding the nature, availability and distribution of rehabilitation services for children with disabilities across developing countries is scarce, and data that do exist are of variable quality. If planning and development are to progress, information about service provision is vital. The aim was to establish the scope and nature of rehabilitation support available to children with disabilities (0-15 years) and their families in rural Kenya. METHOD: A comprehensive sample comprising service provision in the health and special education sectors was established. Non-governmental and community-based organisations were also included. A survey of rehabilitation services was conducted through examination of service-related documentation and key informant interviews with the heads of services. RESULTS: Rehabilitation comprised hospital-based occupational therapy, physiotherapy and orthopaedic technology; and seven special education establishments plus an education assessment resource centre. There was one non-government organisation and one community-based organisation relevant to children with disabilities. Activities focused on assessment, diagnosis and raising community awareness. Provision was challenged by inadequate staffing, resources and transport. Government funding was supplemented variously by donations and self-sufficiency initiatives. Rehabilitation approaches appeared to be informed by professional background of practitioner, rather than the needs of child. Service documentation revealed use of inconsistent recording methods. CONCLUSIONS: The data highlight the challenges of rehabilitation, demanding greater investment in personnel and their training, more material resources, improved access to the community and better recording mechanisms. IMPLICATIONS FOR REHABILITATION: There needs to be greater investment in rehabilitation provision in developing countries. Consideration of community-based initiatives is required to support better access for all. In order to argue the case for improved resources, better skills and mechanisms for recording, monitoring and evaluating practice are needed.
What are the benefits of early and comprehensive intervention for patients in their first episode of a serious mental illness? FROM THE EDITOR One of the core and troubling lessons that I learned during my psychiatric residency in the late 1980s continues to haunt me. For patients with serious mental illnesses (SMI), the greater the duration of time before a patient is diagnosed and enters treatment, the longer a symptomatic episode lasts, the more episodes the patient has, the less adherent the patient is with treatment, the more psychosocial stressors the patient is challenged by, the greater the presence of comorbid substance abuse, and the more disconnected the patient becomes from mainstream society, the worse the patient’s long-term prognosis will be. Intuitively, this is simply common sense. The human brain’s complex neurocircuitry develops beginning at conception and continues until well into the third decade of life. After this, with the basic neuronal circuits established, neuroplasticity is active until we breathe our final breath. A detailed exploration of neuroplasticity is a complex topic for another time. However, 2 foundational concepts of neuroplasticity are conveyed by 2 commonly used phrases: “Neurons that fire together wire together” and “Use it or lose it.” Simply put, the more time that is spent reinforcing healthy behaviors and providing a plethora of positive psychosocial supports, the greater the likelihood is that the individual will maximize their recovery, functioning, and quality of life during times of acute stress/distress. Therefore, it is not at all surprising that a staggering number of factors determine an individual’s risk for developing an SMI, and these will determine the likely life trajectory once an individual’s first episode begins. Similarly, providing a comprehensive treatment intervention early in the first episode of an individual’s SMI could profoundly impact that trajectory in a positive manner. The RAISE Study Identifying and treating individuals suffering from a first episode of psychosis (FEP) in the United States remains a daunting task on many fronts. In 2007, acknowledging the huge unmet need—and drawing upon the collective established experience from the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, and Scandinavia, which had well-established, team-based, multimodal treatment programs for FEP—the National Institute of Mental Health initiated the Recovery After an Initial Schizophrenia Episode (RAISE) study. Not coincidentally, the established programs in these other countries all provide socialized medicine that allows ready access to a broad range of treatments, many of which are not reimbursed by our US current health care system.1 The RAISE study recruited patients with nonaffective FEP between the ages of 15 and 40 years who had been treated throughout their lives with a total of less than 6 months of antipsychotic medications. All treatment was provided over a 2-year period at US community mental health centers; the primary outcome was the Heinrichs-Carpenter Quality of Life Scale total score. A total of 34 clinics nationwide participated: 17 provided only the NAVIGATE treatment (Table 1) and 17 provided each clinic’s “treatment as usual.” The study enrolled 223 patients into the highly structured NAVIGATE arm and 181 patients into treatment as usual. Patients in the NAVIGATE arm whose duration of untreated psychosis (DUP) was less than 74 weeks improved more than those whose DUP was 74 weeks or longer and those who were in the “treatment as usual” group.2,3 RAISE was a pilot study to assess the benefits of a comprehensive, albeit rigid and highly structured/manualized, program for patients with FEP as compared with treatment as usual in 34 community mental health centers in the United States. Enrollment occurred between July 2009 and July 2011; the treatment protocols for the NAVIGATE intervention were established prior to 2009. A spinoff of the RAISE/NAVIGATE study is a consulting group that is considered the gold standard resource for clinics around the country to work with while establishing their own FEP programs. This group’s model and accompanying treatment manuals are based on the original pilot intervention for the RAISE study. Unfortunately, this model promotes antipsychotic medications that were available as of 2009, which excludes the 6 newer atypical antipsychotics approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) since then. Although the ultimate medication choice is at the prescriber’s discretion, the model excludes these 6 newer medications and creates a bias against them. This is unfortunate, as all atypical antipsychotics have their unique risks and benefits and different propensities for adverse events. Because treatment nonadherence is so common in early pharmacological management, it would be beneficial to have updated medication options listed in the consulting group’s “The Quick Guide to NAVIGATE Psychopharmacological Treatment.”4 However, to their credit, the group has added some long-acting injectable formulations of the original medications to their list. For the RAISE study, a prospective patient required a DSM-IV diagnosis of schizophrenia, schizoaffective disorder, schizophreniform disorder, brief psychotic disorder, or psychotic disorder not otherwise specified. The NAVIGATE intervention is geared toward patients with a primary psychotic disorder, which greatly limits its applicability to a large percentage of patients with SMI presenting for psychiatric treatment in their first episode. Similarly, the modules taught by the consulting group in each of the different treatment team member manuals are designed to target patients with a schizophrenia spectrum disorder. The biggest unanswerable question about the RAISE study is: Which component of the treatment interventions contributed most to the positive outcome as compared with treatment as usual? From an evidence-based perspective, each of the components (Table 1) is known to improve outcomes. Keeping this unanswerable question in mind, do novel FEP treatment programs really need to be modeled exactly after the RAISE pilot study protocol? And to take it a step further, why not establish a first episode program that is flexible to address the different needs across a range of SMIs? Validation of Early and Aggressive Intervention A significant literature has evolved to demonstrate that minimizing a patient’s time spent with active symptoms will improve their long-term disease progression, quality of life, and overall lifetime functioning. In the RAISE study, the DUP of patients who received the NAVIGATE treatment intervention clearly demonstrated that earlier intervention in a FEP results in significantly better outcomes than those of patients whose FEP symptoms were more chronic. Table 2 documents the dramatic differences in improvement in participants whose DUP was greater than versus less than 74 weeks. Although limited by patients with diagnoses in the schizophrenia spectrum, it is reasonable to extrapolate this phenomenon to individuals with all SMIs. This finding further supports the benefits of early diagnosis, a comprehensive treatment plan that addresses all aspects of the individual’s life, development of a collaborative treatment alliance, and retention in treatment. Ideally, in a first episode of any SMI, treatment would begin within 4 weeks following symptom onset. The finding in the RAISE study that the median DUP in the United States was 74 weeks is quite concerning, identifying a major potentially modifiable failure of our current medical system. As previously stated, the longer the brain dwells in dysfunctional circuitry associated with SMIs, the harder that SMI is to treat and the poorer the long-term prognosis is for improved function and degree of recovery. The results of the RAISE/NAVIGATE study reinforced the benefits of early access for patients in FEP to a comprehensive and coordinated specialty team, as has been demonstrated in other countries. A dramatic and significant finding was the demonstration of a greater benefit and improved long-term outcome with enrollment in the program earlier in the FEP. This study, although limited to patients with schizophrenia-spectrum disorders, most likely extrapolates to benefits of early and comprehensive intervention for any patient in a first episode of an SMI. In urban areas, where there is likely to be a large population of patients in FEP with a schizophrenia- spectrum diagnosis, the current NAVIGATE model will likely have access to many patients whose needs will be well met by it. The NAVIGATE consulting group should seriously consider updating the training manuals as our treatments expand and become more refined. In more rural areas, in my opinion, a modified treatment intervention that draws upon the basic tenets of NAVIGATE but broadens the treatment interventions to target the specific needs of any individual in their first episode of an SMI would be welcome and likely significantly more cost effective. Expanding the pharmacological options to target patients presenting with their first episode of psychosis or mania or depression, and possibly of complex posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) or a crippling anxiety disorder, would not be difficult for any competent psychiatric prescriber. The various treatment team-specific manuals could contain a menu of modules depending on the patient’s primary diagnosis. The 6 core components of NAVIGATE listed in Table 1 would remain the same. With our current limited financial and clinician resources, a broader model that expands enrollment for a range of individuals presenting with a first episode of an SMI—the earlier, the better—would provide comprehensive treatment to a vulnerable population. This short-term investment in resources would likely pay for itself many times over in improved functional outcome, quality of life, and contributions to society. Dr Miller is medical director, Brain Health, Exeter, New Hampshire; Editor in Chief, Psychiatric TimesTM; staff psychiatrist, Seacoast Mental Health Center, Exeter; Consulting Psychiatrist, Exeter Hospital, Exeter; consulting psychiatrist, Insight Meditation Society, Barre, Massachusetts. 1. Heinssen RK, Goldstein AB, Azrin ST. Evidence-based treatments for first episode psychosis: components of coordinated specialty care. National Institute of Mental Health. April 14, 2014. Accessed May 11, 2022. https://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/topics/schizophrenia/raise/evidence-based-treatments-for-first-episode-psychosis-components-of-coordinated-specialty-care 2. Kane JM, Schooler NR, Marcy P, et al. The RAISE Early Treatment Program for first-episode psychosis: background, rationale, and study design. J Clin Psychiatry. 2015;76(3):240-246. 3. Kane JM, Robinson DG, Schooler NR, et al. Comprehensive versus usual community care for first-episode psychosis: 2-year outcomes from the NIMH RAISE Early Treatment Program. Am J Psychiatry. 2016;173(4):362-372. 4. Robinson D. Quick guide to NAVIGATE psychopharmacological treatment. NAVIGATE Consultants. April 2020. Accessed May 11, 2022. http://navigateconsultants.org/2020manuals/prescribers_2020.pdf ❒