Podcasts about cids

It FINALLY happened!  We waited for literal weeks for the spoilers to stop on the Final Fantasy set and decided that we shouldn't wait any longer!  (They're still releasing cards).  So we did our bracket and put each other's favorite 8 in a head to head challenge to see which card won!  After narrowing it down to 6 Chocobos and 10 Cids, we felt we had a good spread to really represent the set as a whole.  Come check out who we crown the winner and let us know your thoughts!Be sure to check the guys out LIVE ON TWITCH every Monday and Thursday at 8:30PM EST! Talking magic and playing games together.https://twitch.tv/edhbutcasualhttps://www.facebook.com/casualcommandercasthttps://www.casualcommanderpodcast.comhttps://linktr.ee/casualcommanderIf you'd like to help support the podcast, be sure to check out our patreon! Each level will give you great benefits, such as discord privileges, merch discounts, and more.https://www.patreon.com/casualcommander#Commander #magicthegathering #CasualCommanderPodcast #edh #MTGSend us a textSupport the show

Companies constantly deal with shifting laws, regulations and policies. Lately in Texas, there's been a noticeable shift in how the state's attorney general is wielding Civil Investigative Demands (CIDs). The office has been particularly focused on the areas of tech, privacy and AI. How a company responds to a CID can have serious legal implications. In this episode of The Legal Landscape, Haynes Boone Litigation Partners Ryan Patrick and Tim Newman join Communications Manager William Joy to explore how the tactics around CIDs have changed and how to handle them. Listen for tips on how to avoid common mistakes and manage the challenges many organizations face when responding to a CID.

The inaugural Greater Perimeter Chamber Annual Meeting celebrated the launch of a new era in business leadership across Sandy Springs, Dunwoody, and the broader Perimeter region. This pivotal event unveiled their bold vision for the future and clarified what the Chamber stands FOR: business growth, innovation, and collaboration. As Executive Director for the Perimeter Community […]

CIDs and Workforce Housing, with Ann Hanlon, Perimeter Community Improvement Districts, and Kristin Winzeler, True North 400 (North Fulton Voices, Episode 9) In this episode of North Fulton Voices, hosts John Ray and Kathy Swan of the North Fulton Improvement Network discuss the workforce housing crisis in North Fulton with guests Ann Hanlon, Executive Director […]

MDJ Script/ Top Stories for October 1st Publish Date:  October 1st    Commercial: From the BG AD Group Studio, Welcome to the Marietta Daily Journal Podcast.  Today is Tuesday, October 1st and Happy 100th Birthday to President Jimmy Carter ***10.01.24 – BIRTHDAY – JIMMY CARTER*** I'm Dan Radcliffe and here are the stories Cobb is talking about, presented by Credit Union of Georgia.  1.       Judge tosses Georgia abortion ban 2.       Smyrna Police Officers Shot, Suspect Killed in Burglary at Adventure Outdoors 3.       Cobb, Marietta Schools See Improved Results in Math All of this and more is coming up on the Marietta Daily Journal Podcast, and if you are looking for community news, we encourage you to listen and subscribe!    BREAK: CU of GA (06.26.24 CU OF GA FREE CHECKING_REV_FINAL) STORY 1:  Judge tosses Georgia abortion ban A Fulton County judge has overturned Georgia's "heartbeat" law, which banned abortions after six weeks, citing it as unconstitutional. Judge Robert McBurney emphasized women's rights to control their bodies without government interference. The law, passed in 2019, was blocked until 2022 after Roe v. Wade was overturned. The case, challenged by SisterSong, saw McBurney's initial ruling in 2022 overturned by the Georgia Supreme Court, but he reaffirmed his decision Monday. The ruling reverts abortion rights to pre-2019 standards, allowing abortions up to 23-24 weeks. The issue remains contentious in the presidential election, with differing views from candidates Kamala Harris and Donald Trump. STORY 2:     Smyrna Police Officers Shot, Suspect Killed in Burglary at Adventure Outdoors Two Smyrna Police officers were injured, and a suspect was killed during a burglary at Adventure Outdoors. The incident occurred late Friday night when officers attempted to arrest 21-year-old Emilio Aguilar, who fired a rifle, injuring two officers in the leg. Both officers are in stable condition, with one still hospitalized. Three Cobb Police officers, arriving just before the shooting, returned fire, killing Aguilar. No Cobb officers were injured. The GBI is investigating, and the case will be reviewed by the Cobb County District Attorney. Adventure Outdoors expressed support for the officers and their families. STORY 3:  Cobb, Marietta Schools See Improved Results in Math The 2023-2024 Georgia Math Milestones scores reveal significant improvements in math for Marietta and Cobb County schools. Cobb saw score increases across all levels, while Marietta improved or maintained scores except in third grade. Cobb students outperformed state averages, with Marietta excelling in certain grades. Marietta's Algebra scores showed notable growth, doubling Cobb's and tripling state growth. Both districts surpassed state proficiency levels, with Cobb leading in Algebra. Marietta's diverse student groups, including students with disabilities, also showed strong performance. The new math standards, implemented last year, contributed to these gains, reflecting successful educational strategies. We have opportunities for sponsors to get great engagement on these shows. Call 770.799.6810 for more info. We'll be right back Break: DRAKE (Drake Realty (Cobb County) – Truck a Palooza (09.18.24 COBB COUNTY TRUCK A PALOOZA_FINAL) STORY 4:  BioLab Fire Not Expected to Impact Cobb Air Quality A public safety alert states that chemical levels from the Rockdale County BioLab fire are unlikely to harm most people. The Georgia Emergency Management and Homeland Security Agency declared a local emergency within a 50-mile radius of the plant. The fire at the Conyers facility, which produces pool chemicals, led to evacuations. The EPA is monitoring air quality for chlorine, but Cobb County reports no detected chlorine or hydrogen chloride. With winds blowing northeast, away from Cobb, no precautionary measures are currently needed, though monitoring continues. STORY 5:  Mableton Cityhood Headed to Georgia Supreme Court A group of Mableton residents is challenging the constitutionality of the city's establishment in the Georgia Supreme Court. The lawsuit, initially dismissed in Cobb County Superior Court, argues that House Bill 839, which created Mableton and community improvement districts (CIDs), violates the state's single subject rule. The plaintiffs claim the bill improperly combines two distinct government entities. Despite the dismissal, the residents have appealed, with oral arguments set for November 6. Mableton Mayor Michael Owens expressed confidence in the city's legal standing, emphasizing the focus on progressing despite the legal challenge. We'll be back in a moment    Break: Ingles Markets (Cereal Options) 1 STORY 6:  C-130Js to be Used as 'Hurricane Hunters' Lockheed Martin's C-130J Hercules aircraft will be used by NOAA as "hurricane hunters," serving as flying laboratories for hurricane and environmental research. Two specially-built C-130Js will join NOAA's fleet by 2030, aiding in hurricane forecasting, tornado research, atmospheric studies, and more. These aircraft improve hurricane track accuracy by over 15% and intensity forecasts by at least 10%. Funded partly by the 2023 Disaster Relief Supplemental Appropriations Act, the C-130Js will be based in Lakeland, Florida, enhancing NOAA's data-gathering capabilities for extreme weather and climate research. STORY 7:    The Battery Atlanta's 2024 Holiday Festivities The Battery Atlanta's holiday celebrations begin with a Tree Lighting ceremony on November 30, featuring entertainment and a visit from Santa. Santa will be available for visits at his Post Office from November 22 to December 24, where families can take photos and drop off letters. The Holiday Market will showcase diverse local businesses. The New Year's Eve Bash includes an early family-friendly countdown with a baseball drop and a late-night celebration with fireworks. Free parking is available for two hours on non-event days. Break: Marietta Theatre (06.10.24 MARIETTA THEATRE MARGARITAVILLE_FINAL)   Signoff-   Thanks again for hanging out with us on today's Marietta Daily Journal Podcast. If you enjoy these shows, we encourage you to check out our other offerings, like the Cherokee Tribune Ledger Podcast, the Marietta Daily Journal, or the Community Podcast for Rockdale Newton and Morgan Counties. Read more about all our stories and get other great content at www.mdjonline.com Did you know over 50% of Americans listen to podcasts weekly? Giving you important news about our community and telling great stories are what we do. Make sure you join us for our next episode and be sure to share this podcast on social media with your friends and family. Add us to your Alexa Flash Briefing or your Google Home Briefing and be sure to like, follow, and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. Produced by the BG Podcast Network   Show Sponsors: ●        www.ingles-markets.com  ●        www.cuofga.org  ●        www.drakerealty.com ●        www.mariettatheatresquare.com   #NewsPodcast #CurrentEvents #TopHeadlines #BreakingNews #PodcastDiscussion #PodcastNews #InDepthAnalysis #NewsAnalysis #PodcastTrending #WorldNews #LocalNews #GlobalNews #PodcastInsights #NewsBrief #PodcastUpdate #NewsRoundup #WeeklyNews #DailyNews #PodcastInterviews #HotTopics #PodcastOpinions #InvestigativeJournalism #BehindTheHeadlines #PodcastMedia #NewsStories #PodcastReports #JournalismMatters #PodcastPerspectives #NewsCommentary #PodcastListeners #NewsPodcastCommunity #NewsSource #PodcastCuration #WorldAffairs #PodcastUpdates #AudioNews #PodcastJournalism #EmergingStories #NewsFlash #PodcastConversationsSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

En esta nueva entrega de OAFI Sport descubrimos la cara social y solidaria del futbol de alta competición. Junto a Irene Rodríguez, directora de la Fundación Atlético de Madrid y Luis Maicas, aprendemos más sobre el Centro de Investigación en el deporte y salud CIDS, desarrollado en la fundación, y cómo trabajan para mejorar la salud y calidad de vida de las personas con discapacidad intelectual.Además, seguiremos explorando la relación salud-deporte con la Dra. Diana Guzman, Médica especialista en Medicina y Traumatología del Deporte, Clínica CEMTRO, que pondrá sobre la mesa las fracturas no traumáticas en deportistas y nos ayudará a diferenciar, entender y prevenir los distintos tipos que se pueden dar.

Kassi Burns is an attorney who has been using AI and Machine Learning for 10 years. Her legal career is defined by a continued curiosity in emerging technologies, technical and client services skills, understanding of data's impact to legal issues, and a desire to engage with others in and beyond the eDiscovery community. Over the years she has built a unique and diverse background in transactional law, eDiscovery, privacy law, data breach response, information law, and legal operations and regular collaborations with Partner/GC/C-suite clients. Her curiosity about emerging technologies, such as blockchain, NFTs and web3, and their impact to the legal profession, puts her on a continued path of constant discovery and educational growth. Her social media presence, including content through @eDiscoverist, is motivated by a desire to teach non-practitioners about eDiscovery and the legal community about web3. The FTC has made a pivotal move, authorizing compulsory AI-related products and services processes. This includes issuing civil investigative demands (CIDs) akin to subpoenas to tackle potential challenges like fraud, deception, and privacy issues. The big question: How will this shape the future of AI and its interaction with consumer rights and competition laws? Additionally, the FTC's Voice Cloning Challenge is stirring the pot in the AI world. It's a call to action for multidisciplinary solutions against the misuse of AI in voice cloning, focusing on consumer protection and the integrity of biometric data. In this episode we'll share unique insights on how these developments might impact businesses, innovators, and consumers. Plus, we'll explore what it means for future AI advancements and regulatory landscapes.

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Back with a themed episode featuring three of the best Cids from the Final Fantasy series. Visit characterissues.com for our website and hit us up on socials for some science.Rally-ho!

MDJ  Script/ Top Stories for May 18th Thursday Publish Date: May 17, Wednesday   Henssler :15,  Bed Music fires From the Henssler Financial Studio, Welcome to the Marietta Daily Journal Podcast    Today is Thursday May the 18th, and happy 75th birthday to “Mr. October” Reggie Jackson ***Jackson Highlight*** I'm Dan Radcliffe and here are the top stories Cobb is talking about, presented by Credit Union of Georgia Marietta homeowners issued incorrect tax estimates by Cobb County Board of Assessors Georgia churches have right to vote on leaving Methodists, Cobb judge rules And a Lawsuit challenges constitutionality of city of Mableton Plus we'll hear from Leah McGrath of Ingles Markets about high grocery prices, then later in the show Gary Crawford of the USDA will have thoughts on that same topic. All of this and more is coming up on the Marietta Daily Journal Podcast.   Commercial : CU of GA STORY 1  Tax   According to Marietta spokesperson Lindsey Wiles, many homeowners in Cobb County may notice an incorrect increase in their estimated city tax amount on the 2023 notice of assessments. This discrepancy is due to the omission of the floating homestead exemption, which is a tax relief measure for qualified homeowners exempting them from taxation on reassessed residential property value increases. Wiles clarified that the floating homestead exemption is still applicable for City of Marietta taxpayers, and it reduces the taxable amount owed. The city's upcoming property tax bills in August will reflect the correct reduction, as the city's millage rate has decreased for the past four years. Taxpayers are encouraged to contact the city of Marietta Tax Division for any inquiries or concerns. STORY 2: Church ** Christian Jamar Harris, a 32-year-old man from Acworth, Georgia,  was arrested on April 27 for possessing over 100 videos of In a lawsuit between 185 Georgia churches and the North Georgia Conference of the United Methodist Church (UMC), a Cobb County judge ruled on Tuesday that the churches have the right to vote on leaving the denomination. The dispute stemmed from the conference's pause on the disaffiliation process, which allows UMC churches to separate and retain assets if they disagree with the denomination's stance on LGBTQ participation. Cobb Superior Court Senior Judge Stephen Schuster's decision grants the plaintiffs' request to lift the pause and proceed with disaffiliation voting. This ruling reflects the ongoing schism within the UMC regarding social issues such as same-sex marriage and LGBTQ ordination.     Story 3: Lawsuit   Five residents of Mableton have filed a lawsuit in Cobb Superior Court, claiming that the legislation enabling the creation of the city is unconstitutional. The suit challenges the constitutionality of House Bill 839, which authorized the creation of Mableton as a city and community improvement districts (CIDs). The plaintiffs argue that the bill violates the state constitution's single subject rule by creating separate units of local government in one act. They also contend that including the creation of the city and the CIDs in the same ballot question violates legal precedent. The lawsuit seeks a declaratory judgment ruling that HB 839 and the city itself are void. The residents are represented by attorney Allen Lightcap, who previously challenged the constitutionality of proposed cities in Cobb County. The opposition to Mableton's incorporation has been ongoing, with a group campaigning against it and requesting de-annexation of certain areas.......…..we'll be right back   Break:   ESOG– Dayco   Story 4: Sentence   A man from East Cobb, Donald Terry Welborn Jr., has pleaded guilty to shooting at police officers and his neighbors while intoxicated and has been sentenced to 18 years in prison. The incident occurred on September 22, 2020, when Welborn fired shots at his home while his wife and daughter were present. He then threatened to shoot officers who attempted to convince him to leave. During a standoff, Welborn continued to shoot at police officers, with bullets hitting nearby houses and treetops. The incident lasted for hours, causing fear and distress for the neighboring families. Welborn pled guilty to multiple counts of aggravated assault and possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony. He will serve the first 18 years of a 35-year sentence in prison.   STORY 5: Armed Robbery   A 24-year-old named Angel Saenz has been sentenced to eight years in prison for an armed robbery that took place at a hotel in January 2022. Saenz pleaded guilty to several charges, including armed robbery, aggravated assault, obstruction, and possession of a firearm by a convicted felon. The incident occurred at the Extended Stay America Hotel in Cobb, where Saenz held Danielle Roberts at gunpoint and stole her cellphone. Police identified Saenz through a photo of his driver's license found on the scene. He was later arrested, and authorities discovered a handgun, suspected narcotics, and confirmed heroin possession. Saenz also pleaded guilty to additional drug and firearm-related charges. The sentence was handed down by Superior Court Judge Sonja Brown.     STORY 6: Historic   And Now, Leah McGrath of Ingles Markets joins our Bruce Jenkins to talk about high grocery prices:   ***Leah***   More community News after this   Break  Drake– Elon   Story 7: Developer   At a Board of Commissioners zoning hearing in east Cobb, Kenneth Clary withdrew his application for developing 18 homes on 13 acres of land that included the historic Power-Jackson Cabin. Clary's attorney cited the need to address concerns raised during the application process. Initially requesting 20 homes, opposition persisted even as the number of lots was reduced. Historic preservation group Cobb Landmarks requested Clary's assistance in relocating and reconstructing the cabin for public display. The preservation of the cabin, a cemetery on the site, and the condition of two dams were contentious issues throughout the rezoning process. Concerns were raised about the preservation of the cemetery and the maintenance of the dams by nearby residents and organizations.   Top of Form   Story 8: Baseball Final In the Class AA state semifinals, Mount Paran Christian dominated Fellowship Christian with 7-1 and 6-0 victories, securing a spot in the state championship series. Their pitching staff was instrumental, with Tate McKee pitching a complete game in Game 1, allowing four hits and striking out 13, and Luke Dotson following suit in Game 2 with 11 strikeouts and just one hit allowed. Offensively, Dotson contributed with two RBIs and two walks in Game 1, while catcher Kyle Crisp had a strong performance, going 2-for-3 with three RBIs in Game 2. This sets up an all Cobb finals as Mount Paran will face their regional rival, North Cobb Christian, in the championship series. The Eagles enter the series on a 10-game winning streak and have displayed both strong pitching and hitting throughout the playoffs….back in just a moment Break: Ingles 7 Now here is Gary Crawford from the US Dept. of Agriculture talking about food prices: ***USDA*** We're back with some closing comments after this: Commercial:  Henssler 60 Signoff – ****Cobb Life bed**** Thanks again for hanging out with us on today's Marietta Daily Journal podcast. Did you know over 50% of Americans listen to podcasts weekly? Giving you important news about your community and telling great stories are what we do. Make sure you join us for our next episode and be sure to share this podcast on social media with your friends and family. Add us to your Alexa Flash Briefing or your Google Home Briefing and be sure to like, follow, and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. www.hensslerkennesaw.com www.cuofga.com www.esogrepair.com www.daycosystems.com www.ingles-markets.com www.drakerealty.com www.elonsalon.com   See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

As we have discussed, most consumer protection laws give attorneys general broad authority to perform pre-litigation discovery through investigative subpoenas, often termed “civil investigative demands” (CIDs). Many attorneys general can also require sworn statements and answers to interrogatories pursuant to this statutory authority. Businesses should be aware (and beware) that failure to comply with a CID, in whole or in part, can have serious consequences. https://www.adlawaccess.com/2023/03/articles/state-attorney-general-civil-investigative-demands-take-them-seriously/ Paul Singer psinger@kelleydrye.com (202) 342-8672 www.kelleydrye.com/Our-People/Paul-L-Singer Abigail Stempson astempson@kelleydrye.com (202) 342-8678 www.kelleydrye.com/Our-People/Abigail-Stempson Beth Chun bchun@kelleydrye.com (202) 342-8671 www.kelleydrye.com/Our-People/Beth-Bolen-Chun Subscribe to the Ad Law Access blog - www.adlawaccess.com/subscribe/ Subscribe to the Ad Law News Newsletter - https://www.kelleydrye.com/News-Events/Publications/Newsletters/Ad-Law-News-and-Views?dlg=1 View the Advertising and Privacy Law Resource Center - https://www.kelleydrye.com/Advertising-and-Privacy-Law-Resource-Center Find all of our links here linktr.ee/KelleyDryeAdLaw Hosted by Simone Roach

In this episode of KC Connect, Ibec experts Mairead Crosby and Muireann McEnery discuss the recent Supreme Court decision in the case of Maurice Power V HSE. The case deals with the topic of acting up and fixed term contracts and whether a permanent employee who moves to a different role on a fixed term contract basis is precluded from relying on the provisions around CIDs contained in the Fixed Term Work Act 2003 Thank you for listening. To explore all of Ibec's podcast offering, visit here.

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About this Episode: In this episode of The Backstory on Marketing, Sharon Goldmacher expresses her insights regarding the future of digital marketing. She gives valuable information about The Metaverse, challenges marketers and public relations professionals face today, and the concept of combining traditional marketing with digital marketing. About Sharon Goldmacher: Sharon Goldmacher is a seasoned digital marketing and public relations expert with 35 of years of experience in solving marketing challenges for a range of clients in industries from real estate, technology, CIDs, professional services, food and beverage, entertainment, sports and more. Founded in 1992, c21 has garnered 80+ awards from AMA, PRSA, IABC and more, and has been recognized with a variety of business-related awards including DeKalb Chamber's Stargazer award for “Small Business Start-Up of the Year”, Atlanta Ad Club's Young Advertising Professional Award, “Best Place to Work” by the Atlanta Business Chronicle. Sharon was tapped to join the University of South Florida's Z School faculty as an instructor for its digital marketing certificate program and speaks to a variety of organizations on marketing and PR solutions. As part of Sharon's DNA, and she serves on several boards, including as co-chair for CREW Atlanta's Communications Committee, the Atlanta Convention & Visitors Bureau Executive Board, the past presidents' council of the American Marketing Association – Atlanta Chapter. She is a graduate of Leadership Buckhead and will graduate from CREW Leadership in 2022. As the executive director of the Atlanta Local Organizing Committee, Sharon oversaw the planning and execution of the 2013 NCAA® Men's Final Four® in Atlanta. Sharon graduated cum laude from Newcomb College/Tulane University and worked at the NBC affiliate, WDSU-TV. For fun, you can find Sharon on the golf course, cycling or walking her dogs around the ATL, in addition to discovering new eateries! Links: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sharongoldmacher/ https://www.c21pr.com/ https://marketingmachine.prorelevant.com/ (https://marketingmachine.prorelevant.com/) Sign up for ProRelevant Emails: https://mailchi.mp/prorelevant/newsletter (https://mailchi.mp/prorelevant/newsletter)  Link to YouTube Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uG9OnN_hLKs

Welcome to The Nonlinear Library, where we use Text-to-Speech software to convert the best writing from the Rationalist and EA communities into audio. This is: Discovering Agents, published by zac kenton on August 18, 2022 on LessWrong. Work done with Ramana Kumar, Sebastian Farquhar (Oxford), Jonathan Richens, Matt MacDermott (Imperial) and Tom Everitt. Our DeepMind Alignment team researches ways to avoid AGI systems that knowingly act against the wishes of their designers. We're particularly concerned about agents which may be pursuing a goal that is not what their designers want. These types of safety concerns motivate developing a formal theory of agents to facilitate our understanding of their properties and avoid designs that pose a safety risk. Causal influence diagrams (CIDs) aim to be a unified theory of how design decisions create incentives that shape agent behaviour to illuminate potential risks before an agent is trained and inspire better agent designs with more appealing alignment properties. Our new paper, Discovering Agents, introduces new ways of tackling these issues, including: The first formal causal definition of agents, roughly: Agents are systems that would adapt their policy if their actions influenced the world in a different way An algorithm for discovering agents from empirical data A translation between causal models and CIDs Resolving earlier confusions from incorrect causal modelling of agents Combined, these results provide an extra layer of assurance that a modelling mistake hasn't been made, which means that CIDs can be used to analyse an agent's incentives and safety properties with greater confidence. Example: modelling a mouse as an agent To help illustrate our method, consider the following example consisting of a world containing three squares, with a mouse starting in the middle square choosing to go left or right, getting to its next position and then potentially getting some cheese. The floor is icy, so the mouse might slip. Sometimes the cheese is on the right, but sometimes on the left. This can be represented by the following CID: The intuition that the mouse would choose a different behaviour for different environment settings (iciness, cheese distribution) can be captured by a mechanised causal graph (a variant of mechanised causal game graph), which for each (object-level) variable, also includes a mechanism variable that governs how the variable depends on its parents. Crucially, we allow for links between mechanism variables. This graph contains additional mechanism nodes in black, representing the mouse's policy and the iciness and cheese distribution. Edges between mechanisms represent direct causal influence. The blue edges are special terminal edges – roughly, mechanism edges ~A ~B that would still be there, even if the object-level variable A was altered so that it had no outgoing edges. In the example above, since U has no children, its mechanism edge must be terminal. But the mechanism edge ~X ~D is not terminal, because if we cut X off from its child Uthen the mouse will no longer adapt its decision (because its position won't affect whether it gets the cheese). Causal definition of agents We build on Dennet's intentional stance – that agents are systems whose outputs are moved by reasons. The reason that an agent chooses a particular action is that it expects it to lead to a certain desirable outcome. Such systems would act differently if they knew that the world worked differently, which suggests the following informal characterisation of agents: Agents are systems that would adapt their policy if their actions influenced the world in a different way. The mouse in the example above is an agent because it will adapt its policy if it knows that the ice has become more slippery, or if the cheese is more likely on the left. In contrast, the output of non-agentic systems might accidentally be optimal for producing a certain outcome, but these do not typically adapt. F...

Link to original articleWelcome to The Nonlinear Library, where we use Text-to-Speech software to convert the best writing from the Rationalist and EA communities into audio. This is: Discovering Agents, published by zac kenton on August 18, 2022 on LessWrong. Work done with Ramana Kumar, Sebastian Farquhar (Oxford), Jonathan Richens, Matt MacDermott (Imperial) and Tom Everitt. Our DeepMind Alignment team researches ways to avoid AGI systems that knowingly act against the wishes of their designers. We're particularly concerned about agents which may be pursuing a goal that is not what their designers want. These types of safety concerns motivate developing a formal theory of agents to facilitate our understanding of their properties and avoid designs that pose a safety risk. Causal influence diagrams (CIDs) aim to be a unified theory of how design decisions create incentives that shape agent behaviour to illuminate potential risks before an agent is trained and inspire better agent designs with more appealing alignment properties. Our new paper, Discovering Agents, introduces new ways of tackling these issues, including: The first formal causal definition of agents, roughly: Agents are systems that would adapt their policy if their actions influenced the world in a different way An algorithm for discovering agents from empirical data A translation between causal models and CIDs Resolving earlier confusions from incorrect causal modelling of agents Combined, these results provide an extra layer of assurance that a modelling mistake hasn't been made, which means that CIDs can be used to analyse an agent's incentives and safety properties with greater confidence. Example: modelling a mouse as an agent To help illustrate our method, consider the following example consisting of a world containing three squares, with a mouse starting in the middle square choosing to go left or right, getting to its next position and then potentially getting some cheese. The floor is icy, so the mouse might slip. Sometimes the cheese is on the right, but sometimes on the left. This can be represented by the following CID: The intuition that the mouse would choose a different behaviour for different environment settings (iciness, cheese distribution) can be captured by a mechanised causal graph (a variant of mechanised causal game graph), which for each (object-level) variable, also includes a mechanism variable that governs how the variable depends on its parents. Crucially, we allow for links between mechanism variables. This graph contains additional mechanism nodes in black, representing the mouse's policy and the iciness and cheese distribution. Edges between mechanisms represent direct causal influence. The blue edges are special terminal edges – roughly, mechanism edges ~A ~B that would still be there, even if the object-level variable A was altered so that it had no outgoing edges. In the example above, since U has no children, its mechanism edge must be terminal. But the mechanism edge ~X ~D is not terminal, because if we cut X off from its child Uthen the mouse will no longer adapt its decision (because its position won't affect whether it gets the cheese). Causal definition of agents We build on Dennet's intentional stance – that agents are systems whose outputs are moved by reasons. The reason that an agent chooses a particular action is that it expects it to lead to a certain desirable outcome. Such systems would act differently if they knew that the world worked differently, which suggests the following informal characterisation of agents: Agents are systems that would adapt their policy if their actions influenced the world in a different way. The mouse in the example above is an agent because it will adapt its policy if it knows that the ice has become more slippery, or if the cheese is more likely on the left. In contrast, the output of non-agentic systems might accidentally be optimal for producing a certain outcome, but these do not typically adapt. F...

Welcome to The Nonlinear Library, where we use Text-to-Speech software to convert the best writing from the Rationalist and EA communities into audio. This is: Progress on Causal Influence Diagrams, published by Tom Everitt on the AI Alignment Forum. By Tom Everitt, Ryan Carey, Lewis Hammond, James Fox, Eric Langlois, and Shane Legg Crossposted from DeepMind Safety Research About 2 years ago, we released the first few papers on understanding agent incentives using causal influence diagrams. This blog post will summarize progress made since then. What are causal influence diagrams? A key problem in AI alignment is understanding agent incentives. Concerns have been raised that agents may be incentivized to avoid correction, manipulate users, or inappropriately influence their learning. This is particularly worrying as training schemes often shape incentives in subtle and surprising ways. For these reasons, we're developing a formal theory of incentives based on causal influence diagrams (CIDs). Here is an example of a CID for a one-step Markov decision process (MDP). The random variable S1 represents the state at time 1, A1 represents the agent's action, S2 the state at time 2, and R2 the agent's reward. The action A1 is modeled with a decision node (square) and the reward R2 is modeled as a utility node (diamond), while the states are normal chance nodes (rounded edges). Causal links specify that S1 and A1 influence S2, and that S2 determines R2. The information link S1 → A1 specifies that the agent knows the initial state S1 when choosing its action A1. In general, random variables can be chosen to represent agent decision points, objectives, and other relevant aspects of the environment. In short, a CID specifies: Agent decisions Agent objectives Causal relationships in the environment Agent information constraints These pieces of information are often essential when trying to figure out an agent's incentives: how an objective can be achieved depends on how it is causally related to other (influenceable) aspects in the environment, and an agent's optimization is constrained by what information it has access to. In many cases, the qualitative judgements expressed by a (non-parameterized) CID suffice to infer important aspects of incentives, with minimal assumptions about implementation details. Conversely, it has been shown that it is necessary to know the causal relationships in the environment to infer incentives, so it's often impossible to infer incentives with less information than is expressed by a CID. This makes CIDs natural representations for many types of incentive analysis. Other advantages of CIDs is that they build on well-researched topics like causality and influence diagrams, and so allows us to leverage the deep thinking that's already been done in these fields. Incentive Concepts Having a unified language for objectives and training setups enables us to develop generally applicable concepts and results. We define four such concepts in Agent Incentives: A Causal Perspective (AAAI-21): Value of information: what does the agent want to know before making a decision? Response incentive: what changes in the environment do optimal agents respond to? Value of control: what does the agent want to control? Instrumental control incentive: what is the agent both interested and able to control? For example, in the one-step MDP above: For S1, an optimal agent would act differently (i.e. respond) if S1 changed, and would value knowing and controlling S1, but it cannot influence S1 with its action. So S1 has value of information, response incentive, and value of control, but not an instrumental control incentive. For S2 and R2, an optimal agent could not respond to changes, nor know them before choosing its action, so these have neither value of information nor a response incentive. But the agent would value controlling them, and is able to influence them, so S2 and R2 have value of control and instrumental control ince...

Ira and Drew rank their Top 10 Cids. Plus, what makes a great Cid? Why did the Final Fantasy creators decide that they needed this type of character? What does he represent? And must there be a Cid?

In this episode, we'll discuss Social Engineering risk as it pertains to Common Interest Developments.

Tad Leithead/Leithead Consulting & Lilburn CID Founded in 2018, Leithead Consulting uses its resources and in-depth network to identify properties that are outside of the boundaries of current Community Improvement Districts (CIDs) in order to expand their boundaries. Through this process, Leithead Consulting helps CIDs increase their revenue while also increasing their geographical size. Leithead […]

Tad Leithead/Leithead Consulting & Lilburn CID Founded in 2018, Leithead Consulting uses its resources and in-depth network to identify properties that are outside of the boundaries of current Community Improvement Districts (CIDs) in order to expand their boundaries. Through this process, Leithead Consulting helps CIDs increase their revenue while also increasing their geographical size. Leithead […] The post Tad Leithead with Leithead Consulting & Lilburn CID, and Tyler Weant with Legendary Home Team @ Keller Williams appeared first on Business RadioX ®.

Link to bioRxiv paper: http://biorxiv.org/cgi/content/short/2020.11.10.377440v1?rss=1 Authors: O'Brien, J., Narayan, V., Wong, Y. L., Seitzer, P., Sandoval, C., Haste, N., Smith, M., Rad, R., Gaun, A., Baker, A., Kukurugya, M., Martin-McNulty, B., Zhang, C., Kolumam, G., Sidrauski, C., Jojic, V., McAllister, F., Bennett, B., Buffenstein, R. Abstract: Isotopic labeling with deuterium oxide (D2O) is a common technique for estimating in vivo protein turnover, but its use has been limited by two long-standing problems: (1) identifying non-monoisotopic peptides; and (2) estimating protein turnover rates in the presence of dynamic amino acid enrichment. In this paper, we present a novel experimental and analytical framework for solving these two problems. Peptides with high probabilities of labeling in many amino acids present fragmentation spectra that frequently do not match the theoretical spectra used in standard identification algorithms. We resolve this difficulty using a modified search algorithm we call Conditional Ion Distribution Search (CIDS). Increased identifications from CIDS along with direct measurement of amino acid enrichment and statistical modeling that accounts for heterogeneous information across peptides, dramatically improves the accuracy and precision of half-life estimates. We benchmark the approach in cells, where near-complete labeling is possible, and conduct an in vivo experiment revealing, for the first time, differences in protein turnover between mice and naked mole-rats commensurate with their disparate longevity. Copy rights belong to original authors. Visit the link for more info

We have a very special episode for you. Cidney gets real deep and personal with her life. She tells why she's Cidney. She talks about marriage, divorce, gaslighting, miscarriage and more. Life is all about experiences and stories and the growth that comes with it. Making mistakes is important and it's okay. Thank you for tuning in and listing to our chaos. We love you all. Please follow our socials. We are having a give away on Instagram at 100 followers. Email: s.l.u.tpod@gmail.com Twitter: SL_Tpod Thenblocked Tiktok: s.l.u.tpodcast IG: slutpod Venmo: slut-pod Paypal: violetturner Thank you for your continued support! We love you all!

Hey everyone as always a new episode months after the previous one. This is the first in person episode of smoothriffs and we like it much better give us feedback and 5 star reviews ;)

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CIDS - Historias de una Cuarentena Global #3 by Café con Historia

CIDS - Historias de una Cuarentena Global #2 by Café con Historia

CIDS - Historias de una Cuarentena Global #1 by Café con Historia

Today we're joined by Paul Marvar, PhD, associate professor, in the Department of Pharmacology and Physiology and the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences here at GW. We're going to discuss the GW Biomedical Cross-disciplinary Seminar Series, a new annual lecture series co-organized by Dr. Marvar and Leigh Frame, PhD, MHS, program director, Integrative Medicine, executive director of the GW Office of Integrative Medicine and Health, and co-host of this podcast. Focused on "Inflammation in Chronic Disease: Cause, Consequence, or Both?" the seminar series will address both the treatment and prevention of chronic inflammatory diseases (CIDs). The goal is to promote networking and collaboration on translational health among researchers, health care providers, and policy makers from different disciplines to shift the paradigm—from seeking a cure to developing a strategy of prevention. The Seminar topics are: ○ Cancer and inflammation ○ Genomics and inflammation ○ COVID-19 and inflammation ○ Bioinformatics and inflammation ○ Precision medicine and inflammation ○ Cardiometabolic disease and inflammation ○ Neuropsychiatric disease and inflammation ○ Treatment approaches and inflammation Join us for this free online lecture series: https://bit.ly/3gvz1JW ◘ Related Content Chronic inflammation in the etiology of disease across the life span https://www.nature.com/articles/s41591-019-0675-0 The Growing Crisis of Chronic Disease in the United States https://www.fightchronicdisease.org/sites/default/files/docs/GrowingCrisisofChronicDiseaseintheUSfactsheet_81009.pdf WHO | Chronic and noncommunicable diseases and their risk factors https://www.who.int/ncds/en/ Chronic inflammatory systemic diseases: An evolutionary trade-off between acutely beneficial but chronically harmful programs https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26817483 ◘ Transcript https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/transcript-inflammation-chronic-disease-cause-both-gw-office-of/?published=t ◘ This podcast features the song “Follow Your Dreams” (freemusicarchive.org/music/Scott_Ho…ur_Dreams_1918) by Scott Holmes, available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial (01https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/) license. ◘ Disclaimer: The content and information shared in GW Integrative Medicine is for educational purposes only and should not be taken as medical advice. The views and opinions expressed in GW Integrative Medicine represent the opinions of the host(s) and their guest(s). For medical advice, diagnosis, and/or treatment, please consult a medical professional.

In this episode, we review some of the recent news from the world of payments and regulation.  The episode includes highlights form our members only publications and other news from our member companies. If you are a member and aren’t seeing the IPA Update and Government Update in your inbox, let us know, and we’ll make sure you get on the list. Not a member? Reach out today and talk to us about the benefits of joining. Go to www.ipa.org to learn more. Below are links to some of the items mentioned in the episode. To read Bloomberg’s story on the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s responses to requests to end CIDs, visit: https://news.bloomberglaw.com/banking-law/kraninger-holding-the-line-on-cfpb-investigative-demands To read Walmart’s digital currency patent application, visit: http://appft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO2&Sect2=HITOFF&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsearch-bool.html&r=1&f=G&l=50&co1=AND&d=PG01&s1=20190236564&OS=20190236564&RS=20190236564#Cite_@inthepixels To learn more about the IPA’s compliance boot camp, coming up in September, please visit: https://www.ipa.org/newsroom/2019/registration-for-the-2019-boot-camp-is-open/

Community Improvement Districts (CIDs) are a well-established model in metro Atlanta to design and fund improvements to sidewalks, traffic intersections, signage and landscaping. On today's Around Atlanta segment of Atlanta Real Estate Forum Radio, Chamblee Doraville CID Chairman and Jim Ellis Automotive Group President Jimmy Ellis discusses the goal of developing transportation projects that improve mobility, access and safety to patrons and area residents. The Chamblee Doraville CID is a self-taxing district comprised of commercial property owners of its respective cities. The CID assumes planning and taking action to improve the overall community. In general, CIDs enhance property values and allow commercial business and property owners to determine how funds are allocated within the district, leveraging their resources to attract public funding. Beginning in 2018, Chamblee and Doraville commercial property owners came together with the intent of forming a CID to provide leadership and support, ensuring long-term positive outcomes benefiting all area owners, businesses and residents, specifically related to mobility in the area. Two MARTA rail stations, Peachtree-DeKalb Airport and a decent roadway system anchor the surrounding commercial districts to include Peachtree Boulevard, Buford Highway, Downtown Chamblee and Downtown Doraville. Chamblee Doraville CID projects will include: Sidewalk and safety improvements along Peachtree Blvd and Buford Highway Multi-Use Trails Gateway beautification projects Intersection improvements Advance Chamblee and Doraville Livable Centers Initiative (LCI) Plans Engage MARTA and influence the DeKalb Transit Plan in 2018 Undertake planning with Georgia DOT regarding Interstate 285 projects The Chamblee Doraville CIDs will work with the cities and commercial business owners to implement plans that best benefit the district. Residents and employees will enjoy improvements to auto and pedestrian safety, expanded transit options and less bottleneck traffic congestion. In fact, a plan to connect Chamblee and Doraville's commercial areas with communities, schools, parks and other attractions is already underway! Currently, the Chamblee Doraville CID is supported by: Jimmy Ellis, Ellis Automotive Larry Callahan, Pattillo Industrial Real Estate Vince Riggio, Trinity Development Matt Oppenheimer, Halpern Enterprises Valerie Voyles, Ed Voyles Automotive Allan Gutierrez, Urbana Realty Bob Voyles, Seven Oaks Gary Matthews, Parkside Partners Carter Sechrest, Tripoli Management Inc. The Chamblee Doraville CID will serve as a voice for commercial property owners throughout the community. To learn more about joining, contact Dan Reuter at 404-229-3734 or Contact@DanReuter.com. To learn more, listen to the complete interview above or click here. For more information regarding CIDs throughout the metro Atlanta area, visit www.PeachtreeGatewayPartnership.com. https://youtu.be/RPSlvrdpoM8 A special thank you to Jackson EMC for sponsoring Atlanta Real Estate Forum Radio. Jackson EMC offers homebuyers peace of mind and lower bills with its certified Right Choice™ new home program. These homes are built to be energy efficient and sustainable with improved indoor air quality, convenience and comfort. For more information on Right Choice new homes and Jackson EMC, visit https://RightChoice.JacksonEMC.com. Please subscribe to Atlanta Real Estate Forum Radio on iTunes. If you like this week's show, be sure to rate it. The “Around Atlanta” segment, sponsored by Denim Marketing, airs on Thursdays and is designed to showcase the best of metro Atlanta – the communities, attractions and special events that make this city great. To submit your event, community or attraction to the Around Atlanta edition of Atlanta Real Estate Forum Radio, contact Denim Marketing at 770-383-3360 or fill out the Atlanta Real Estate Forum contact fo...

For this episode we did a podcast with the bishop of Des Moines. We talked to him about the 4 marks with him.

In this podcast, we discuss the recently-announced changes to the CFPB’s CID policies, how those changes reflect recent court decisions, and the practical implications of the changes (including their utility to companies in responding to CIDs).

Community improvement districts (CIDs) are an increasingly popular method of promoting economic growth in Atlanta, with 29 active CIDs currently and four more in formation. On today’s All About Real Estate episode, Emory Morsberger, Executive Director of Lilburn CID discusses the various economic development plans to make Lilburn an even better place to live. He […] The post Lilburn Commercial Property Owners Take Future into Their Own Hands appeared first on Atlanta Real Estate Forum.

Community improvement districts (CIDs) are an increasingly popular method of promoting economic growth in Atlanta, with 29 active CIDs currently and four more in formation. On today's All About Real Estate episode, Emory Morsberger, Executive Director of Lilburn CID discusses the various economic development plans to make Lilburn an even better place to live. He also explains the formation of CID's and provides proof that public-private partnerships can be crucial in areas such as economic development and education. Morsberger has been a real estate redeveloper for 35 years across metro Atlanta. He founded Avalon homes in 1991 and spearheaded the Highway 78 project to improve the declining conditions of the area. He was also heavily involved in the revitalization of downtown Lawrenceville, striping the Square's old buildings to their original brick and wood floors and transforming it into a bustling destination. Morsberger's impressive redevelopment continues with transformation projects such as Ponce City Market, Gateway 85 and several other projects across metro Atlanta. Lilburn CID was formed seven years ago and focuses on “the corridor between two presidents,” as Morsberger describes. The Lilburn CID works dramatically to improve and redevelop the six-mile corridor and is currently in the process of a $28 million road and interchange improvement program. A unique aspect to Lilburn is the three different sections, the south end features the majestic Atlanta mandir, the largest Hindu temple in the U.S., the north side is home to Plaza Las Americas, the largest Hispanic center in metro Atlanta, and the core center is the city of Lilburn, with new facilities and a top-notch school system. “Parkview High School is a great attraction to the area,” states Morsberger. “Families who work at Emory, on or near Clifton Road, have the advantage of an amazing school system and they're only a 20-minute ride from work.” Tune into the podcast with the link above to hear about the plans for a convenient shuttle system that will take Lilburn residents to Clifton Road! During the interview, Morsberger explains the importance of CIDs and exactly how they are formed. Unlike a chamber of commerce, a CID can help fund physical improvements to an area. CIDs generally focus on transportation, physical appearance and safety issues. They partner with city, county, and state agencies to help initiate projects like reconfiguring an intersection or installing sidewalks for pedestrians. In Lilburn, the main focus is road improvements, landscape improvement and economic development. “The idea is that increasing curb appeal and eliminating blight, along with intersection improvements and better traffic light timing, will increase road capacity and make the area more attractive to quality, upscale businesses,” states Morsberger. Tune into the podcast with the link about to learn more about Lilburn CID and for contact information to connect personally with Emory Morsberger. Visit www.lilburncid.com to learn more about the organization and projects that are happening now. ______________________________________________________ A special thank you to Jackson EMC for sponsoring Atlanta Real Estate Forum Radio. Jackson EMC offers homebuyers peace of mind and lower bills with its certified Right Choice™ new home program. These homes are built to be energy efficient and sustainable with improved indoor air quality, convenience and comfort. For more information on Right Choice new homes and Jackson EMC, visit https://RightChoice.JacksonEMC.com. ______________________________________________________ The Atlanta Real Estate Forum Radio “All About Real Estate” segment, presented by Denim Marketing, airs on Fridays and highlights the movers and shakers in the Atlanta real estate industry – the home builders, developers, Realtors and suppliers working to provide the American dream for Atlantans. For more information on how you can be featured as a g...

In this episode, hosts Mana Lombardo and Jason Crawford talk with Nkechi Kanu, an attorney in Crowell & Moring’s Government Contracts Group, about the use of Civil Investigative Demands (CIDs) in False Claims Act investigations and discuss best practices for responding to CIDs issued by the Department of Justice. "Let's Talk FCA" is Crowell & Moring’s podcast covering the latest developments with the False Claims Act.    

Odds are, you've seen a few mentions of Community Improvement Districts (CIDs) in and around the Atlanta metro area. CIDs are designed to help improve communities by bettering conditions for existing businesses and attracting new growth. On today's All About Real Estate episode, Emory Morsberger, President of the Tucker Summit CID discusses how the company is continuously working in conjunction with government entities to build a bright future in the City of Tucker. Morsberger has been a real estate redeveloper for 35 years across metro Atlanta. He founded Avalon homes in 1991 and spearheaded the Highway 78 project to improve the declining conditions of the area. He was also heavily involved in the revitalization of downtown Lawrenceville, striping the Square's old buildings to their original brick and wood floors and transforming it into a bustling destination. Morsberger's impressive redevelopment continues with transformation projects such as Pounce City Market, Gateway 85 and several other projects across metro Atlanta. As board president of Tucker Summit CID, Morsberger works endlessly to ensure that the CID is conducting infrastructure improvements, enhancing security through additional patrols and cameras and beautifying the city to attract businesses in manufacturing, supply chain logistics, biosciences and more. Tucker is undoubtedly one of the fastest-rising business destinations in the Metro Atlanta area. Since the City of Tucker came into existence in 2016, it has experienced a dynamic business expansion. Community safety, beautification, business retention, economic growth, and capital improvements are all domains in which CIDs can help improve business-minded communities like Tucker. With Tucker's convenient location at the edge of the metro region and easy access to the Perimeter and 78, the City continues to experience business growth. Tucker Summit CID is the connection for those businesses to get the resources they need to enhance their services and the community. The City has a great partnership with its business community and works collaboratively with Tucker Summit CID to ensure a safe and successful community. In addition, the CID has strong relationships with the Tucker Police Department, the Tucker Fire Department, the City of Tucker government and Tucker community. “Nothing gets done unless we work with other people,” Morsberger simply states. “Partnerships with CIDs are win-win for everyone, the property owners are giving money to help with essential projects and the issues are getting resolved.” Tucker Summit CID has two top priorities for 2019, get the roads even further improved and let the world know that Tucker is the number one location in Metro Atlanta for metrics, biotech, and new genetic testing and food testing facility. “Tucker is in an ideal location, we have an ideal worker case, and we're ready for action,” states Morsberger. Tune into the podcast with the link about to learn more about Tucker CID and for contact information to connect personally with Emory Morsberger. Visit www.tuckersummitcid.com to learn more about the organization and projects that are happening now. ______________________________________________________ A special thank you to Jackson EMC for sponsoring Atlanta Real Estate Forum Radio. Jackson EMC offers homebuyers peace of mind and lower bills with its certified Right Choice™ new home program. These homes are built to be energy efficient and sustainable with improved indoor air quality, convenience and comfort. For more information on Right Choice new homes and Jackson EMC, visit https://RightChoice.JacksonEMC.com. ______________________________________________________ The Atlanta Real Estate Forum Radio “All About Real Estate” segment, presented by Denim Marketing, airs on Fridays and highlights the movers and shakers in the Atlanta real estate industry – the home builders, developers, Realtors and suppliers working to provide the American ...

Odds are, you’ve seen a few mentions of Community Improvement Districts (CIDs) in and around the Atlanta metro area. CIDs are designed to help improve communities by bettering conditions for existing businesses and attracting new growth. On today’s All About Real Estate episode, Emory Morsberger, President of the Tucker Summit CID discusses how the company […] The post Businesses Find Their Voice in the Community with Tucker Summit CID appeared first on Atlanta Real Estate Forum.

What finish should I use for my PCB Design? There’s no one single answer, it depends. Meet chemist and surface finish expert Mike Carano, the Vice President of Technology and Business Development at RBP Chemical, industry leaders in high performance chemical technology. Mike emphasizes a key question when it comes to surface finishes, “What are the reliability requirements of the environment?” Learn about the chemistry behind different finishes, fabrication and get tips for avoiding corrosion in unexpected environments in this episode of the OnTrack Podcast. Show Highlights: Mike was Inducted into IPC hall of fame. RBP Chemical - veteran owned small business, based in Milwaukee, founded in 1954 as a supplier for the printing industry and over the years evolved into surface finishes and also carry product lines for Embedded Medical Devices and Semiconductor and Mining industries. On using solder mask over bare copper method - prior to going out to assembly the copper needs to be made pristine. What are the surface finishes and which to use when? 50% of industry using hot air solder leveling (HASL), a surface finish with a long successful history. Other surface finishes: Electroless nickel immersion gold (ENIG), Electroless Nickel Electroless Palladium Immersion Gold (ENEPIG) - which is common in IC substrate, packaging industry. Future of surface finishes: Tin-silver, Direct palladium copper What finish should I use? There’s no one answer, it depends. Are there common examples of things that can go wrong? ie. High frequency design applications - ENIG is a well known issue that most engineers learn about the hard way. Where is the final product going to be used? Is it a domestic product or for the military? Reliability first, cost last. Cost should not be driving force. The environment is what really matters i.e. Shock-drop or Brunel fracture - consider for mobile phones, ENIG - tin-nickel bond, not tin-copper, corrosion environments, temperature extremes What are the reliability requirements of the environment? The most high quality board fabricators have strong process control and automation in place to ensure chemical stability. Board designers are looking for electrical performance. Need to ask about the environment. I would put every designer in a circuit board fabricator for a week and let them build a board they design. To learn, you need to practice and get practical information on building the bareboards. Creep corrosions on the mill automation machines because the OEM is specifying the finish. Japanese techniques i.e. Shokuku chemical Most substrate work is done in Asia; IC substrate packaging at its best is in Japan. Advice for learning: IPC courses, CID and CID+ training is one way to learn more. Links and Resources: RBP Chemical Trouble in Your Tank IPC Hall of Fame Interview Video IPC Hall of Fame induction IPC courses HDP Users Group (HDPUG) SMTA.org   Hey everyone it's Judy Warner with Altium’s OnTrack podcast. Welcome back we are glad to have you join us again today we have a very unique topic and speaker which was actually brought about by Mark Okumura who is the Senior Principal Hardware Engineer from ETS Lindgren who reached out to me and asked me about the topic of surface finishes and lucky for you I happen to know the guy who is a chemist and expert on surface finishes. A longtime friend Mike Carano from RBP Chemical. Before Mike and I get started, I wanted to please invite you to connect with me on LinkedIn or on Twitter, I'm @AltiumJudy. Altium is on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook, and also please know that we're recording on YouTube in case you want to see our sunshiny faces. So Mike, welcome thanks so much we’re delighted to have you. Thanks for inviting me. It's good to know friends in high places right? Well, I have friends in low places. [Laughter] I don't believe it, well maybe, so Mike, I’ve got a question. First of all let's talk about your background a little bit so as a way of introduction Mike Carano was inducted into the IPC Hall of Fame a few years ago and I had the privilege of doing the video interview that was highlighting his induction into the IPC Hall of Fame because he has served on so many committees and boards for IPC, but he really is the go-to guy on chemistry. So Mike, tell us a little bit about your background how you got into chemistry specifically related to the printed circuit board electronics industry? Well sometimes Judy, things happen by accident really, chemistry and sciences were always a love of mine so I always liked to experiment - my parents got me the chemistry set, and   everything from blowing up golf balls to me making things at home, everything from even experimenting with making wine that's chemistry - that seemed like a good thing to do right? I also realized that probably owning a vineyard would not be in the immediate future so onward and upward with chemistry, particularly the area of physical and advanced chemistry electrochemistry working on a Master's Degree, I happened to be walking up on campus one day back in 1980, 24 years old, and there's a gentleman standing outside this building and he noticed my chemistry books he says, hey come here I want to talk to you, and I thought, oh what's this about? And I noticed the sign on the door there, Youngstown Ohio City Electrochemicals, and he asked me if I wanted to interview for a position there. Well it was perfect because graduate school was more part-time. I was doing some teaching assistance and what do you know, I interviewed for this thing on surface finishing chemistry having no idea really what I was getting into, but I did. The idea was finishing my Master's degree, and go on and do something else - maybe do this for two years - well 39 years later here I am still in the industry. In some way, shape, or form, so that's how I got into this and as the company, Electrochemicals in those days, founded primarily on the metal finishing industry - you know, surface finishing for doorknobs and bumpers and decorative plating. Well the company was just then getting into printed circuit board chemistry and a lot of people didn't even know what that was in those days because it was a fledgling industry there was mostly - remember Judy way back then was the 80% of the industry was really run by the OEM... Yeah -So digital equipments the the Adelphi’s, the Delco’s the IBM's, but pretty soon there was that switch, and then I got involved in IPC and pretty soon was formulating chemistries and technical service, traveling globally around the world was fascinating for me, and here I am today, and still in the industry in some way, shape, or form. You know, you evolve, you continue to evolve matter of fact, just like surfaces they've evolved. Yeah right. Where we are today, I'm sure they'll continue to evolve in the very near future. Yeah for sure, so can you give us a quick overview, I know you were Chief for many many years and now you're with RBP can you give us a quick thumb nutch of RBP? Absolutely, great opportunity, company privately owned (veteran owned) small business, our company is based in Milwaukee Wisconsin and was founded in 1954 and has been privately held since. The current CEO and majority owner is Mr Mark Kannenberg, he's my immediate boss, Mark served in Vietnam, he's a West Point graduate and also a Harvard MBA, but he always wanted to kind of get in the business of owning his own company even though he had many, many opportunities. So he's now been running RBP for these last 30 years. Under his control the company has grown beautifully - initially, the company was founded as a supplier of materials and chemistries for the printing industry, newspapers, newsprint magazines, but over the years also evolved into surface finishing, surface treatment and printed circuit board chemistry, which is the company today, because as I said it continues to evolve. Today and we have four major product lines the printed circuit board and photochemical milling chemistries. We have a great product line in the area of embedded medical devices, and we also serve the semiconductor and the mining industries with some specialty additives. A lot of people don't understand the connection but there's a connection all the way through the platforms because the chemistries are basically adapted to work in all those industries which makes working with RBP fascinating for me - the diversification but yet the the continuity and the familiarity - so great opportunity and I've enjoyed it immensely. Good, thank you for sharing that Mike, so let's jump right into surface finishes. I'm sure most of our listeners who are engineers and designers will be familiar with surface finishes but let's just go back to our ABCs for a second and just define surface finishes for us for PCBs. Sure that is the part of the board that is really going to be used to prevent oxidation of the base metal, as you know, typically we have copper as the base metal if you're using the solder mask over bare copper method where you basically put solder mask down that nice green stuff and the copper is showing, you have to make that copper solderable, you have to preserve the solderability so typically, prior to that board going out to the assembly operation, the copper has to be basically made pristine with a finish that does not oxidize so that you can join the component leads, whatever they may be, whether they be surface mounts, through-hole, BGA, QFNS, QFPs, they have to be able to to wet that surface and form a reliable joint. So the surface finish is critical for that application and for that end product. So tell us - give us just a rundown - of what the surface finishes are and then we're gonna jump in to which one to use when. Sure well, here in North America and primarily for the military, we're still using - at least 50 or so percent of the industry - uses hot-air solder leveling. Basically you're taking that solder mask over bare copper board, flexing it, cleaning the copper and then dipping it into a molten solder pot to coat the surface. But over the years, due to a lot of other constraints, one of them was to get rid of lead. And even when we have lead-free, hot air leveling, the other surface finishes have evolved, as a matter of fact, have taken center stage primarily outside of North America. With these surface finishes are we hear the term ENIG, which is Electroless Nickel Immersion Gold we also hear about Electroless Nickel Electrons Palladium Immersion Gold also known as ENAPEG, and while that may be an expensive finish, you see that used quite a bit in the packaging industry, the semiconductor packaging IC substrate industry. Then there is OSP Organic Solderability Preservatives, which is actually the only one of these to be non-metal-containing and then we have immersion silver, and immersion in tin, and again we expect that there’ll be other additions of these finishes coming up in the near future. Potentially a tin silver or direct palladium over copper to get rid of the gold altogether. There's a lot of movement in this area to enhance the surface finish reliability at the same time managing costs because you see how precious metals like gold and palladium can contribute significantly to the cost of that board. Which then makes you wonder, okay what finish should I use and when should I use it? So that's a rundown of our finishes and each one of them - I can tell you this Judy - when people ask me, and I travel all over the world, what finish should I use... Yeah -no one finish fits all. That's a loaded question isn't it Mike? It depends, that's the answer. It depends right. Well as I mentioned in the beginning, this gentleman Mark Okumura reached out to me and said, are you ever going to talk on your podcast, or do you have any information about surface finishes? Because in his particular case - and this is just one of many many high frequency application engineers and designers - have found out the hard way that if they use ENIG the Electroless Nickel Immersion Gold, that if it's high frequency then we have the skin effect and then the signal begins moving through the nickel and the nickel is lossy, and unfortunately that's a well-known issue it's been going on forever but it seems like people have learned that the hard way, unfortunately one at a time, that's just one example. So can we talk about when we talked a few weeks ago, about environment playing a huge role on how to make a selection on your surface finishes. So can you jump into that a little bit? What I mean by environment is, where is that final product going to be used, and let me just preface it this way, if you're in this industry, whether you're in the printed circuit board industry directly or you're an assembler or you're an OEM. Choosing the final finish for that product may be the most important decision you make, because it is going to impact that long-term reliability of least of that solder joint now as I’m saying solder joint,  I'm using it interchangeably with lead-free as well. And compounding that, is again, where are the boards going to be used? Is it to finish in harsh use environments such as automotive under the hood, military aerospace - and that's one application. But then, what about consumer items like mobile phones, smartphones, desktop computers, smart tablets, household devices. You don't need a product or a finish that adds $9 a surface square foot of the board if you're using it in a washing machine in your house, or in a microwave, or even a desktop or laptop computer. Now military aero things like class 3, or class 3A that have to work 24 hours a day, seven days a week and can't fail - you can't fail. You may look at that and you say, well do I need ENAPEG, do I need ENIG? Do I need to make the OSP also work? And some people really are surprised when they find out that OSP’s a very reliable finish. It's not wire bondable but in terms of reliability in forming the copper tin in a metallic, and having a reliable solder joint, it's fantastic. So think about that, it also happens to be the lowest cost finish but I am of the opinion, and I asked somebody this, and I listed ten things I have cost of the finish at the bottom, because that should not be the driving force of what you put on the board. It's the environment where the board is used and then you ask yourself other questions. Is cosmetics important? Do I have to have a shiny silvery finish or don't I need one? I'm worried about shock drop, we know for example, if something I have in my hand drops a lot like a smartphone. you worry about brittle fracture of the components - actually fraction when that phone hits the ground - we've all dropped our phones and the mobile phone companies, the Apples of the world and the Samsung's, conduct shock drop tests all the time because that's important criteria. You don't want to spend money on a new phone, drop it and find out the components fell off. So that's why you don't see ENIG used a lot on the smartphone, you use things like something that makes it much stronger - copper tin and a metallic bond - whereas with ENIG, your tin is formed with the nickel so it's a tin-nickel bond not a tin copper one. I see. So, we all know, and there's been hundreds of papers published by many, many companies and fantastic researchers around the world, showing that the tin to copper in a metallic is much stronger than the tin to nickel in a metallic. So that's something to consider as well, not just the cost. But you might use ENIG in medical devices, we know the military is starting to look at ENIG as a final finish, but they also do some things to ensure the reliability of that component as it is attached to the surface. So there's a myriad of things to look at - oh and corrosion environment - in terms of creep corrosion, and that's an issue and silver tends to be somewhat prone to creep corrosion, but in an industrial environment kind of outside, or in a clay modeling studio or in a paper mill where sulphur is emitted. Yeah that's interesting. So, if you told me, well I'm making this part because I work for General Motors and I'm modeling, I'm gonna use clay to model my next car and I'm gonna have all these computers hooked up inside that studio, I think I'll use boards with silver on them. Well you probably don't want to, your work is gonna be lost, so that's one consideration. As I said shock drop is another, but again where are you using the final product? Industrial automation, using it outside, base stations, all of those things. Industrial controllers where we're subjected to not just environmental contaminants,but maybe significant vibration, temperature extremes etc. So always look at the environment where you're using it and what the reliability requirements are. Can you afford the warranty, what is the warranty when you take something back? If it's inexpensive, you can use an inexpensive finish but if the cost of failure is great, you should rethink that finish which you're going to use and how you're going to use it. That totally makes sense to me. You had mentioned that a lot of people think that OSP is generally a sort of low-tech product, but you were pushing back against that when we discussed that, why is that? Well 25 years ago OSP was what you would call the single attachment finish - one reflow, maybe one through-hole, and that was it. It lasted four to five months whereas the other finishes, like hot air leveling - one year, two year shelf life - that's changed. Companies have made significant improvements in the reliability. Also the the ability of the OSP to reduce oxygen penetration on the copper, and that again is what you're trying to do, you're trying to prevent the underlying copper from oxidizing so that when the solder melts and spreads on the surface, it spreads and encapsulates the leads on the side on the components and solidifies and it's a highly reliable. If the surface is oxidized even slightly and doesn't wet properly you've lost your reliability, but OSP has come on strong now and you see it in automotive under the hoods, major telecommunication companies using it for the reasons of getting away from brittle fracture, you see them in smartphones - a significant number of smartphones - and I have experience in those areas so, I'm talking from personal experience - the reliability is there with the right finish. Now the low-tech you find, if you buy a low-tech OSP from somebody you've never heard of, you’re taking a risk, but the companies out there - two or three that are making significant contributions to the performance of OSP - they've upped the game significantly. Many of them are fifth-generation molecules, these are synthesize organic azone molecules, that just do a fantastic job, and I would not hesitate to recommend it for numerous applications. It's interesting how that's evolved over time, I wasn't aware of that until you mentioned it to me recently, and that's some of the magic of chemistry that just runs in the background of our industry until sometimes - it seems like - until there's a problem. That's right. We don't talk about it, so I'm glad to sort of have this discussion. That’s a good point, to that point Judy, when Black Pad showed up what people will call brittle fracture... Yeah. -it set the industry back 15 years for ENIG because they didn't understand it, they wanted to blame the phosphorus content of the nickel deposit, but that turned out to be incorrect, it turned out that the cause of that was the galvanic effect. When you put immersion gold on top of nickel you're not electrolytically plating it, you're doing an immersion deposit, also known as galvanic cells, so to deposit on nickel, some nickel actually has to corrode and leave the surface, so that the gold can take its place. And that's the main difference of an immersion deposit. Well, what was happening because of the way things were being run, pH, nickel morphology, roughness, etc that galvanic effect was significantly large, causing this corrosion - significant corrosion - to take place on the nickel surface, and that would impact negatively the formation of the solder joint. And there you would get brittle fracture, you drop something, It breaks. So, things are better now, but I still would be very careful, if you told me, I'm gonna put ENIG on my board today, I would say do a first article, make sure that the board design you have, will not end up with this issue. That's a good advice and, for people who are listening. Again - you're going to hear me say this over and over again - and I'm not going to apologize for it, is that you need to get into a board house, find the time because most really good, world-class board houses - you're going to go in and you're going to be surprised to see... and Mike can talk about this, the complexity of the labs they have in place to make sure that their chemicals are stable and doing what they're supposed to do. Mike, I imagine you've spent just more than a little bit of time inside of board houses discussing chemical balance and, if you would, jump in on what the choice of surface finish has on the fabricator and why the designer should know about that? Right yeah, well first let's go back to your first question about these board fabricators the ones that are high-quality board fabricators and I'm looking at not just on the surface finishing side, but also other aspects of the circuit board fabrication including electroless copper, direct metallization, the amount of control that they have in place, process control automation, to keep plating and other the key ingredients within a very tight operating window. And that's not difficult if you invest the time, and you have the commitment to ensure that. I can’t tell you how many times Judy, have been in situations where I've had to troubleshoot a problem because someone said I've got this issue, I've got that issue, you go there and you find out that they were running the chemistry basically way outside the window. Well, why'd you do this? Well, we only check it once every two shifts. Well, you can't have a high volume operation like what you're doing and then check the chemistry once every two shifts and I'm telling you, 90% of these problems that I see related to process, are related to incorrect use of the chemistry and mishandling of the controls that are available to you. Now does that mean that the fabricator needs to work much closer with the supplier, but if the supplier is already doing this for them, the fabricator needs to take some responsibility. But again, I've been with a number of companies who have complete failure analysis labs also in their facility. So, they take it to a very high level, they're basically their own qualification facility to ensure that they understand where the issues are. They categorize every defect and those are the kinds of ones you want to work with. Absolutely, and I've worked for shops like that where they literally had PhDs in chemistry renting the lab. They were doing their own cross section and when suddenly, there's a spike in volume - if you're not on top of it and you don't have those people and all of a sudden - whoops production went up, but we're still checking our bass at the same rate we were before. And then like, oh what happened? Well there's all these things that need to be taken   into consideration and adjust it accordingly. So, what other fabrication considerations are there that that maybe designers or engineers that are designing boards would want to consider as they decide what they're going to choose? Well good that's a good point, and you and I know design is important, because there's this conundrum in our supply chain. The fabricator is looking for design for manufacturing and the designer is designing something to work in a certain fashion. Electrical performance, dielectric spacing, and and they don't take into consideration potentially what that does, how that impacts the bare board fabrication process. That's a very significant right? What - and I'm gonna go back to this - because I find this to be an issue as well on the assembly side boards come into the assembler, they come from somewhere, and they call me and say I have the the plating is lifting from the surface when we assemble, or the solder mask is lifting well I said do you did you specify the grade of solder mask, do you even know what solder mask is being put on the board that you're bringing in to assemble? Well no. Now I find out - it's very easy for me to find out - that they’re using, the fabricator... wherever, typically not here, are using a low $10 a kilo solder mask because no one specified it. And of course, that $10 a kilo or less solder mask is probably gonna work beautifully in a handheld child's toy, it's not going to work very well for your medical device. And you're gonna have all these other problems. So I think, I hope the designers would get more involved in understanding the difficulties in making a bare board and also understand: just don't specify ENAPEG because it sounds great, or sounds sexy. Because number one, you're probably not paying for it, somebody else has to pay for that ENAPEG and at $12 and $10 a square foot.   Understand - and this is where the board designers are looking for the electrical performance - do they ask where the board is going to be used? Is it going to be in a harsh-use environment, is it going to be in a benign environment clay modeling studio? These are the key questions for them. Typically what I see designers do is, say this is how the board should be built, these are the layers, these are the holes, and you should use this material with this dielectric constant. That's all great, but it's not enough. Right And  I've been teaching this advanced troubleshooting course with printed circuit board fabrication for years, and you'd be surprised at the number of designers that actually take that course, and they ask the craziest questions. Which tells me they haven't been outside of the board fabrication, outside of their design studio. Understand that you need to live with that a little bit I would put every designer at least in a circuit board fabricator for two weeks and have them build a board that they designed. Yep I agree it's hard - we encouraged that here a lot - and almost every guest on here says the same thing. Because you and I've been around the block a little while, and understand that there's time constraints for them to get out. However the long-term cost of not getting out there and not onboarding. And this is another plug - you and I've been around IPC awhile - this is another plug for CID and CID+ training, as well because there you onboard some of these things that may be outside of the obvious things that are around manufacturing and assembly. So Kelly Dack wants to start field trips on every CID course. I'm like, yes let's do it! You know, to me that would be fantastic, and to be honest with you and being heavily involved myself in an IPC, one of the things that I've suggested that when CIDs and the CID+ students earned their certifications, they should also have to get some understanding in coursework and practical on the bare board fabrication. You should make it like you did in college, the practicals, you just didn't do the book work, you had to go into the lab... Exactly! -apply what you just learned from the book, because if you couldn't resort to practice, at the end of the day you can't practice it. You've not learned. And as we both know, the cost of ignorance in these areas is so high, like avoidable mistakes. Costly...  I've seen an entire clay modeling studio shut down, a paper mill shut down, because, again the paper mill folks were buying the controls from the OEM who was specifying the boards to be made but the finish... So the poor industrial automation company using these expensive controls were wondering why these inexpensive instruments are no longer doing what they're supposed to do. And they find out that there's creep corrosion in there because the OEM specified immersion silver or bought the board somewhere cheap where the individual companies decided to cut corners, like they do, to meet the cost. Like not putting enough gold on, not putting enough nickel on. You know, there are specs for a reason. There is, absolutely. And that's obviously a discussion for another time. Yeah that's a whole other podcast, and then there's everything you're doing - HDPUG - which is another podcast I'd like to get you on for as well. I want to put a pin in our conversation right now because I realized, in the beginning I failed to mention to our listeners that you may hear some background noise here. There's some... well, what I was telling our producers is, we're building a better podcast but it’s noisy in here, but really what's happening is we have some construction and of course it's overhead in the green room here in our La Jolla office, so it's directly overhead, on this day of course, so please, please excuse any background noise. So Mike, you sit on boards for international companies as well as companies here and you are a respected and trusted advisor. You mentioned to me about things that the Japanese are doing that are very innovative and that is that they're mixing finishes and doing selective finishes can you tell us a little bit about that? Yeah, and this is if you can see the IC substrate side in the Japanese, or the ones who really made miniaturization go. I mean they understood how to make things small, not just lawn mowers and engines like Toyota Camrys and things like in the Prius, but they figured out early on how to do it with circuit boards and and putting more functionality on the chip. Matter of fact, that's where OSP was actually invented was in Japan, in those days it was called pre-flux because it was in the rudimentary 1970s day, but they pioneered the OSP and matter of fact, today the leading OSP company in the world is Shikoku Chemicals out in Japan, they continue to evolve that chemistry and I trust them immensely. So, going back to that question what you do is, in the IC substrate market, where you've got a complex chip that has to have gold leads or gold wire bonding, you have on one side of the substrate, nickel gold, and then you bond the chip with the wires to that feature. But then on the flip side, which is going to be a BGA feature, you have bare copper which is OSP. So they have the BGA balls on the bottom side and the IC substrate - the chip actually, the the die as they call it - on the top side. So you have ENIG - selectively on one side and bare copper meaning OSP - on the other and of course it's a flip chip. So with the IC substrate or the IC chip in there, you marry that BGA to the Barriss surface of the copper board meaning an OSP, and you've got this fantastic package, if you will, instead of doing it all in the nickel gold or all in ENIG and handle it selectively. And they've developed these processes, and they've also developed a selective imaging, if you will, to make that happen. but it's relatively easy to do, once you understand the ramifications and how to make it work, and make sure you don't get an OSP that doesn't say, ‘attack’ the exposed nickel gold. All these things, it's pretty pretty intricate, but it's been around for some time and with a lot of success so I've selected ENIG as they call it. Interesting, so I was just gonna ask you, what does that do to cost and process ? You're saying it's not difficult, how about cost implications? Well there is an additional cost of putting the second imaging step down to protect the board from plating where you don't want it to go, but instead of doing the entire IC substrate in nickel gold, you're doing just one portion of it where the wires from the chip are placed,  from the die so, that does help you significantly in the long run. It also makes the BGA perform better because you're marrying basically tin to bare copper making another opportunity there. Do you think that will find its way here into North America? Well, the thing is there's only a few fabricators here who do work in the substrate industry, most of the substrate work is done in Asia for the Amcor’s and the Intel's and the Samsung’s so you see a lot of the supply chain there. Some big American owned companies in Asia are doing it in volume, but again, if you want to see IC substrate packaging at its best it's the Japanese. Yeah that makes sense. Yep they’re the leaders,and they've been doing that for 30 years, so they tend to be ahead of their time, but now the time has come. Yeah well it's interesting to get your perspective on sort of a global scale, as well this has been great. Our time is coming to a close here, but will you please share with us links to any white papers or slide decks or anything you have? Because I think how I want to wrap up is Mike, if you are a designer what would you do with all this information? And we've kind of shared it sort of anecdotally and quickly here, but if you wanted to learn more about this where would you go, and what kind of things maybe can you share with our listeners that we can throw on the show notes so they can maybe get better at this. Well very good. I would encourage you designers who haven't taken an IDC course outside of design - I encourage you to take them - you look on the IPC website. We just had Apex where, in addition to technical papers, there were workshops on a number of different subjects including my Advanced Troubleshooting course, but there were also courses on the Basics of Bare Board Fabrication, and some of the instructors do a great job of giving you the tour, if you will, of the very basics. So you can get a feel for how the board starts with bare laminate, actually starts from the design, and actually ends with the finished product, going out to assembly from a manufacturing standpoint, and you can follow that up by taking the Advanced Troubleshooting, so you can understand where some of the problems and technical issues come from when the board is fabricated, with the various chemical steps and the mechanical steps like drilling and plating and immersion gold and silver. Whatever you need to do, that would be something you should do, and also watch for IPC Tech Ed, where they're going to be putting more and more of these courses. Standalones in different parts of the company whether it be San Jose, San Diego. We just did a course in Boston back in April which was well attended, and we just had the High Reliability Conference in Baltimore a few weeks ago, which had a high military aero content to it. But there's a webcast as well. And also, I encourage you to look at the IPC website - http://ipc.org/. Go through the technical papers, look for the events that are going on there but obviously at every Apex there will be this myriad of courses to take, and I encourage you to go to your boss and say, look this is something I think will benefit me, and you're gonna send me there anyways for the other events, so why not get there on a Sunday and take this course? Yeah good advice. SMTA is another good place that has a lot of technical papers and seminars and webinars related to things like surface finishes and design for reliability etc. Matter of fact, IPC actually has a Design for Manufacturing workshop that is taught by some really highly-skilled people too, so that might be something that a designer would benefit from. Again, because the designer or an actual designer is actually teaching the course from experience because he lives it... Yeah -let me build bare boards...   I'm talking like Gary Ferrari and Susie Webb and those folks, they've actually built boards but they also design. Happy Holden and he's built boards, he designs boards, he understands - they get it. Right. That would be an interesting perspective for all those out there. Okay good, that's great stuff. Well we'll make sure to attach the links to IPC and I know they're doing a lot with education right now, and so I'll make sure - and if you have anything to share with me please do - and we'll make sure we also include links to RBP Chemical. Yeah, https://www.rbpchemical.com/ And then we will share anything else that you want, and I'm hoping I might be able to twist Mike's arm to come teach a surface finish course at Altiumlive in October. But we'll see, he's so in demand, hie’s a popular guy - but if I had my wish, that's what we would do because I think it'd be a great place again hope to have about five six hundred designers there so I think they would benefit. So Mike thank you again, you're a dear friend, and thank you so much for always freely sharing your information. Mike also writes a column for PCB007 Magazine, called Trouble in Your Tank, and that's where I learned a lot and actually how I became friends with Mike as I was asking him if I could please take some of his content and repurpose it for blogs I was writing. So we'll also include that link to his column. So Mikey, thank you again you're a dear contributor and friend to the industry and thanks so much for taking time out of your busy day to do this with us it's been fun. Well, thank you Judy, thanks for inviting me. I appreciate it, you have a great day. Thanks you too again. This has been Judy Warner with Altium’s OnTrack podcast and Mike Carano of RBP Chemical. please join us again next time - until then - always stay OnTrack.  

This week Matt and Andy take a look at the little understood CIDS system and what happens when a total failure occurs

Dr. Paul Wong:                  Welcome to the monthly podcast, On The Beat, for Circulation: Arrhythmia and Electrophysiology. I'm Dr. Paul Wong, editor in chief, with some of the key highlights from this month's issue. We'll also hear from Dr. Suraj Kapa, reporting on new research from the latest journal articles in the field. In our first article, Ratika Parkash and associates examined whether the outcomes following escalated antiarrhythmic drug therapy, or catheter ablation, depended on whether ventricular tachycardia with amiodarone refractory or sotalol refractory in patients with prior myocardial infarction in the VANISH study. At baseline, 169, or 65%, were amiodarone refractory, while the remaining were sotalol refractory. Amiodarone refractory patients had more renal insufficiency; 23.7% versus 10%. Worse, new ARC Heart Association class, 82.3% versus 65.5% class II or III; and lower ejection fraction, 29% versus 35%. Within the amiodarone refractory group, ablation resulted in a reduction of any ventricular arrhythmias compared to escalated drug therapy, with a hazard ratio of 0.53, P = 0.02. Sotalol refractory patients had trends towards higher mortality in VT storm with ablation, with no effect on ICD shocks. Within the escalated drug arm, amiodarone refractory patients had a higher rate of composite endpoint, with a hazard ratio of 1.94 and a P value of 0.01. In a trend toward higher mortality, hazard ratio 2.4, P = 0.07. While mortality was not different between amiodarone and sotalol refractory patients within the ablation treatment group. In our next study, Junaid Zaman and associates examined 57 cases in which local ablation of persistent atrial fibrillation terminated to sinus rhythm or organized tachycardia. The authors analyze unipolar electrograms collected during atrial fibrillation from multi-polar basket catheters to reconstruct isochronal activation maps for multiple cycles, and computational modeling and phase analysis were used to study mechanisms of map variability. At all signs of atrial fibrillation termination, localized, repetitive activation patterns were observed, 21% with complete rotational activity, 46% with partial rotational circuits, and 33% with focal patterns. In computer simulations incomplete segments of partial rotations coincided with areas of slow conduction, characterized by complex, multi-component electrograms. In our next article, Matthew Kalscheur and associates sought to use a novel machine-learning approach to predict outcomes following resynchronization therapy in the companion trial. The random forest algorithm resulted in the best performing model. In 595 CRTD patients in the companion trial, 105 deaths occurred, with a median follow-up of 15.7 months. The survival difference across subgroups differentiated by bundle branch block morphology and cure restoration did not reach significance, P = 0.08. The random forest model, however, produced quartiles of patients with an eight-fold difference in survival between those with the highest and lowest predictive probability for events, hazard ratio 7.96 with a P value of less than 0.0001. The model also discriminated the risk of composite endpoint of all cause mortality, or heart failure hospitalization, better than subgroups based on bundle branch block morphology and cure restoration. Future studies are needed to validate this model in other populations. In our next paper, Amr Barakat and associates examined the clinical outcomes of trans-venous lead extraction for CIED infection based on renal function. The authors examined 1,420 consecutive patients undergoing trans-venous lead extraction of infected CIEDs over a 14 year period. Groups with normal renal function, Group 1, consisting of 1,159 patients, Group 2, 163 patients with renal dysfunction not requiring dialysis, and Group 3, 98 patients on dialysis. Complete procedural success rates were comparable in the three groups: 94%, 96%, and 94% in Groups 1, 2 and 3, respectively. This was not statistically significant. The mortality rates were significantly higher in dialysis patients at one month. The procedure-related complication was 12.2% in dialysis patients versus 6.5% in Group 1 and 6.1% in Group 2. Other factors associated with mortality were lead material retention, functional New York Heart Association Class, and occurrence of procedural complications. In our next paper, Eric Johnson and associates studied the contribution of the current ITO, two left ventricular re-polarization in the human heart, since the current has been shown to have an important role in animal models. The authors found that using whole-cell voltage clamp recordings from myocytes, isolated from the left ventricle, non-failing human hearts, that there were two, distinct transient currents, ITO fast and ITO slow. The two currents have significantly different rates of recovery from inactivation and pharmacological sensitivities. ITO fast recovers in about 10 milliseconds, 100 times faster than ITO slow, and it's selectively blocked by KV4 channel toxin SNX 482. Using current clamp experiments, they found that regional differences in action potential wave forms, with a notch in phase one in the left ventricular subepicardial myocytes. In failing, left ventricular subepicardial myocytes, ITO fast was reduced, while ITO slow was increased. In addition, the notch and plateau potentials were depolarized, and action potential durations were prolonged, both statistically significantly. Slowing ITO fast inactivation results in a dramatic action potential shortening. The authors concluded that remodeling of ITO fast in failing, human left ventricular subepicardial myocytes, attenuates transmural differences in action potential wave forms. In our next paper, Ravi Vaidyanathan and associates examine the interaction between Caveolin 3 domain in the inward rectifier potassium channels. Although the IK1 current is mainly composed of Kir2.1, there are Kir2.2 and Kir2.3 heterotetromerisoforms that occur and modulate the IK1 current, but these have not been studied. Kir2.x isoforms have unique, subcellular co-localization in human cardiomyoctyes and co-immunoprecipitate with Cav3. Using induced pluripotential stem-cell-derived cardiomyocytes, the LQT9 Cav3 mutation, F97CCav3 resulted in actual potential prolongation. Based on the technique FRET, which is Fluorescent Resonance Energy Transfer, the authors calculated the distance between KR2.2 and cath ray proteins to be 6.61 nanometers. LQT9 is caused by Cav3 mutations. Prior work has shown that F97CCav3 mutation increases the late sodium current, and decreases KR2.1 current density by distinctive mechanisms. This study extends the authors' previous observations on the impact of LQT9 Cav3 mutation on Kir2.1 current, by demonstrating that mutation affects the Kir2.2 current. LQT9 causing Cav3 mutation differentially regulates current density and cell surface expression of Kir2.x homomeric and heteromeric channels. The authors show that the mutation does not affect Kir2.3 current, but the heterotetromer Kir2.2-2.3 demonstrated loss of function. Using the Li-Rudy [inaudible 00:09:45] model and myocyte mathematical model, the authors' data suggest that both loss of IK1 and increased sodium L are required for arrhythmia generation in LQT9. In our next study, Christophe Teuwen and associates use high resolution epicardial mapping electrodes, 128 or 192, with an inter-electrode distance of 2.0mm of the entire atrial surface in 164 patients. These patients were undergoing open-chest cardiac surgery. This study was designed to examine the conduction of atrial extrasystoles. The authors found that a higher degree of aberrancy was associated with a higher instance of conduction disorders. Most conduction disorders were provoked by atrial systoles emerging as epicardial breakthroughs. Atrial extrasystoles cause most conduction disorders in patients with left atrial dilatation or diabetes mellitus. In our next paper, Yuki Komatsu and associates examine 31 patients with idiopathic ventricular arryhthmias, using a two french microcatheter placed in a communicating vein between the great cardiac vein and small cardiac venous system, which passes between the aortic and pulmonary annulae, and is located in close associated with the left ventricular summit. They found that 14 patients had summit ventricular arryhthmias. The remaining 17 patients control group had ventricular arryhthmias originate from the right ventricular outflow track in the aortic cusps.  In patients with summit ventricular arryhthmias, the earliest activation during ventricular arryhthmias in the summit, preceded to cure as onset by 34 milliseconds. The summit ventricular arryhthmias exhibited inferior axes, negative polarity in lead one, deeper Q wave in AVL than AVR, nonspecific bundle branch morphology with an RS ratio in lead V1 of 0.67, distinguishing them from arryhthmias originating from the right ventricular outflow track or right ventricular cusp. Overall, ablation success was achieved in 10, or 71% of patients with summit ventricular arryhthmias, and 88% in the control group, P = 0.24. In our final paper, Deepak Padmanabhan and associates examine differences in mortality in patients with non-MRI conditional CID undergoing brain MRI compared to controls. Patients with CIDs undergoing brain MRI were compared with three control groups matched for age, sex, imaging year, and type of CID. These groups included 1) no CID and brain MRI, 2) CID in brain-computed CT, and 3) no CID in brain CT. They estimated all cause mortality at five years for CID MRI group, was not significantly different from patients who underwent CT, with or without a device. There was a significant increase in the mortality between CIED versus no CID MRI groups, hazard ratio 1.46 with a P value of 0.04. That's it for this month, but keep listening. Saraj Kapa will be surveying all journals for the latest topics of interest in our field. Remember to download the podcasts On the Beat. Take it away Saraj. Saraj Kapa:                          Thank you Paul, and welcome back to On the Beats where this month we'll be focusing on articles that are particularly hard-hitting, published across the literature in December of 2017. It's my pleasure to introduce 20 different articles that seem to have either particular interest or might change the field in the future. First, within the area of atrial fibrillation, we'll focus within the area of anticoagulation and stroke prevention. In the Journal of the American College of Cardiology, Vivek Reddy et al published on the five-year outcomes after left atrial appendage closure, from the Prevail and Protect AF trials. They included a total of 1,114 patients, with a total of 4,343 patient years of follow-up, randomized two to one to closure versus Warfarin. While ischemic stroke and systemic embolism of [inaudible 00:14:32] were numerically higher with closure, this did not reach statistical significance in terms of hemorrhagic stroke, unexplained death, and post-procedure bleeding favor left atrial appendage closure. These findings further support a role for left atrial appendage closure in the specific groups of patients enrolled in the Protect and Prevail Studies. Of course, we always need to understand, that extrapolation to patients who may not have met inclusion criteria will be difficult. In particular, given both trials had their own fundamental limitations in the Prevail study. There was a relatively low rate of [inaudible 00:15:09] in the Warfarin arm. And in turn, there was a relatively high complication rate in Protect AF with left atrial appendage closure. Part of the differences might be due to the fact that, with more experience, complication rates might decrease. Furthermore, a comparison with more novel agents, such as the new oral anticoagulants, remains to be seen. Next, within the realm of cardiac mapping and ablation for atrial fibrillation, we review an article by Vlachos et al published in the Journal of Cardiovascular Electrophysiology entitled Low-Voltage Areas Detected by High-Density Electroanatomical Mapping for Recurrence of Ablation after a Paroxysmal Atrial Fibrillation. They presented the results from a series of 80 patients undergoing ablation for paroxysmal atrial fibrillation, performing high-density voltage mapping to characterize the total area involved by low voltage. They demonstrated, when low voltage areas, defined as less than 0.4 millivolts, were seen in greater than 10% of the left atrial surface area, this served as an independent predictor of atrial fibrillation recurrence. These data support prior research, including that of MRIs, suggesting the characterization of the atrial substrate may correlate with likelihood of ablation success. Identifying methods however, to accurately and reproduce will identify these patients with more atrial substrate prior to ablation, remains to be seen. The importance of this, however, is our ability to better counsel patients on the likelihood of treatment success. Next within the realm of atrial fibrillation, we review elements of risk stratification managements. First, in the December issue of the Journal of American College of Cardiology, Takimoto et al published on how Eplerenone may reduce atrial fibrillation burden without preventing atrial electrical remodeling. In a randomized controlled ovine atrial tachy pacing model of atrial fibrillation. The authors provided daily, oral Eplerenone and compared this with a placebo. They showed that Eplerenone significantly reduced the rate of left atrial dilatation, with less smooth muscle actin protein, atrial fibril [inaudible 00:17:17]. Furthermore, Eplerenone further prolonged the time to persist in atrial fibrillation in 26% of animals. However, interestingly, Eplerenone did not prevent AF-induced electrical remodeling.  These data suggest that Eplerenone, or other medications that can be used to prevent or reverse structural remodeling, may offer an upstream therapy to reduce atrial fibrillation burden, and decrease likely the persistent atrial fibrillation. Giving the ever-growing population of patients suffering from atrial fibrillation, identifying upstream approaches to prevent it will be critical. Of course, these need to be taken with due consideration, however. Specifically, the model used here, namely that of an atrial tachy pacing model, might not be applicable to all human atrial fibrillation. Thus, whether or not such therapies actually offer benefit in clinical models, is as of yet unclear. Finally, from the realm of atrial fibrillation, we review the article by Rowin et al published in circulation entitled Clinical Profile of Consequences of Atrial Fibrillation Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy. In patients presenting with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, atrial fibrillation is known to be a significant co-morbidity. However, the implications of atrial fibrillation in terms of worsening of heart failure status, or long-term morbidity mortality are less clear. Rowin et al reviewed the natural history of atrial fibrillation amongst 1,558 patients, prospectively followed at a single center. Nearly 20% of the population developed atrial fibrillation with the majority having symptomatic paroxysmal atrial fibrillation. However, atrial fibrillation was not associated with any increase in cardiovascular mortality or worsening of heart failure status. Furthermore, mortality that was directly related to atrial fibrillation was nearly exclusively related to thrombolic stroke. Anticoagulation [inaudible 00:19:13] reduced this risk. The traditional scoring systems fared poorly in assessing the stroke risk of this population. About 121 patients underwent invasive rhythm control approaches, including 72 patients undergoing maze and 49 catheter ablation. The success rate of maze was significantly greater at around 75%. These data are important when counseling hypertrophic cardiomyopathy patients presenting with new-onset atrial fibrillation. While it is clear that paroxysmal atrial fibrillation has a significant impact on symptoms and quality of life, it does not cause worsened, overall, long-term outcomes. However, it does highlight the importance of anticoagulation in this population, nearly irrespective of the underlying risk score. In terms of rhythm control options, it appears that rhythm control options can be successful in these patients. Finding that catheter ablation is associated with a 40 to 50% success rate is in keeping with prior published data. Thus, consideration of when a patient needs to be referred to maze, needs to be considered in the clinical inpatient context. Changing gears, we will next review articles within the realm of ICDs, pacemakers, and CRT. In the New England Journal of Medicine this past month, Nazarian et al published on their experience regarding the safety of magnetic resonance imaging in patients with cardiac devices. They performed a prospective non-randomized study of the safety of, specifically, 1.5 tesla-strength MRI scans on legacy. In other words, not MRI conditionally-safe pacemakers and defibrillators. A total of 2,103 scans were done among 1,580 patients. They demonstrated no long term clinically significant adverse events. Nine patients did experience a reset to a backup mode, though eight of which were transients. The most common change seen acutely was a decrease in PVA amplitude in one percent of patients, and in a long term follow-up, 4% of patients experiencing a decrease in PVA amplitude, increase in atrial catheter sheer threshold, or increase in right or left ventricular capture threshold. However, none of these events were considered clinically significant. Furthermore, there was not a good [inaudible 00:21:23] group to know if this long term change in amplitudes or thresholds might have been seen in patients who had devices that were not exposed to MRI. These findings are complimentary to multiple, prior, published reports, indicating the safety of performing MRIs under clinical protocol in legacy pacemakers and defibrillators. It calls into question whether MRI conditional devices truly offer an additional safety factor furthermore, over legacy devices. Next we review an article by Lakkireddy et al published in Heart Rhythm entitled A Worldwide Experience, the Management of Battery Failures and Chronic Device Retrieval of the Nanostim Leadless Pacemaker. Lakkireddy et al reported their large multi-center experience on the overall risk of battery failure. Amongst 1,423 implanted devices there were 34 battery failures occurring, on the average, three years after implants. Furthermore, about 73 patients underwent attempted device retrieval, and this was successful in 90%, with the seven failures of retrieval being due to either inaccessibility of the docking button, or dislodgement of the docking button in one patient, in whom it embolized to the pulmonary artery. An additional 115 patients interestingly received an additional pacemaker after release of the device advisory. These data suggest that there may be as high as an overall 2% risk of battery failure with the Nanostim device, even late after implants. This highlights the need for close follow-up, even if the battery appears relatively stable up to two year after implants. Furthermore, almost 10% of devices cannot be successfully retrieved. However, in those patients, even with re-implantation of a separate device, there was no device-device interaction seen. Further innovation will be needed to optimize device longevity, and close follow-up of all patients undergoing implantation will be critical to understand the overall long term efficacy and safety when compared to other traditional devices. Finally, within the realm of device care, we focus on an article by Kiehl et al, again published in Heart Rhythm this past month entitled Incidence and Predictors of Late Atrial Ventricular Conduction Recovery Among Patients Requiring Permanent Pacemaker for complete heart block after cardiac surgery. They reviewed the likelihood of recovery of conduction in their retrospective cohort of 301 patients. Interestingly, 12% of patients had recovery of AV conduction on average six months after surgery. Those who did not recover tended to more likely have preoperative conduction abnormalities. Saraj Kapa:                          Findings that suggested a higher likelihood of long term conduction recovery included female sex and the existence of transient periods of AV conduction postoperatively. These data highlight that recovery of AV conduction is possible in a significant number of patients undergoing cardiac surgery. However, being able to predict long term recovery may assist in device selection, to avoid more costly device implantations that may not be needed over chronic follow-up. Prospective studies amongst larger numbers of patients are needed to better understand mechanisms of block, mechanisms of recovery, an optimal device in patient selection. Changing focus, we will next review two articles within the realm of supraventricular tachycardias. First we read an article by Han et al published in JACC Clinical Electrophysiology, entitled Clinical Features in Sites of Ablation for Patients With Incessant Supraventricular Tachycardia From Concealed Nodofascicular and Nodoventricular Tachycardias. Han and group describe three cases of concealed nodovascicular, nodoventricular re-entrant tachycardias, and focus on the different mechanisms of proving their participation in tachycardia. In all cases, atrial ventricular re-entering tachycardia was excluded. Successful ablation for these tachycardias occurred either at the slow pathway region, the right bundle branch, or the proximal coronary sinus. This is the first described case of incessant, concealed tachycardias related to these pathways. The importance of this article highlights an understanding the mechanisms proving the contribution to tachycardia, and the importance of recognition when performing electrophysiology studies, and being unable to reveal traditional mechanisms, which exist in most patients, such as atrial tachycardia, AVNRT or AVRT. Next we review an article by Guo et al published in Europace entitled Mapping and Ablation of Anteroseptal Atrial Tachycardia in Patients With Congenitally Corrected Transposition of the Great Arteries: Implications of Pulmonary Sinus Cusps. They reviewed three separate cases of anteroseptal atrial tachycardias in the setting of congenitally corrected transposition. They demonstrated that in these cases, there was successful ablation performed with the pulmonary sinus cusps. The result is successful and durable suppression. The reason this article is important lies in the fact that it's critical to understand both cardiac anatomy and cardiac nomenclature. The pulmonary valve in CCTJ is affectively the systemic ventricular arterial valve, given that the right ventricle is the systemic ventricle. Thus, mapping in this region of CCTJ abides the same principles as mapping the aortic valve in structurally normal hearts for similar tachycardias. However, understanding the nomenclature and that despite the variant anatomy, the utility of similar approaches to mapping of the systemic outflow are important when matching these complex, congenital anatomy or arrhythmia patients. Changing gears yet again, we review an article within the realm of sudden death and cardiac arrest. Baudhuin et al published in Circulation and Genetics entitled Technical Advances for the Clinical Genomic Evaluation of Sudden Cardiac Death. Baudhuin et al reviewed the utility of formal and fixed paraffin-embedded tissue, which is routinely obtained in an autopsy, to perform post-mortem, genetic testing. One of the main limitations to advising family members who have had prior family history of sudden death in closely related relatives, is that blood is often not available to perform DNA screening late after death. DNA however is often degraded in the tissues that are commonly available at autopsy, namely the formal and fixed paraffin-embedded tissues. The authors sought to evaluate if your next generation techniques could make these types of tissue adequate for diagnosis. They demonstrated amongst 19 samples, that performance characteristics were similar between whole blood and these tissue samples, which could be as old as 15 years. It can be critical to identify disease-causing mutations in family members, as individuals who might not yet be affected, but at risk, need to know about that overall risk. Given that decision to sequence might also not be universally applied at all centers, or in all situations, oftentimes these paraffin-embedded tissues might be the only available option, sometimes over a decade after death. This represents the first report of using next-generation sequencing approaches to successfully and accurately sequence for specific mutations using paraffin-embedded tissue. This may offer additional options to help family members achieve diagnoses for sudden death-inducing conditions. Within the realm of cellular electrophysiology, we review an article by Lang et al published in Circulation Research entitled Calcium-Dependent Arrhythmogenic Foci Created by Weakly Coupled Myocytes in the Failing Heart. Lang et al reviewed the effect of cell-cell coupling on the likelihood of triggered arryhthmias. In a [inaudible 00:28:45] model, they demonstrated the myocytes that are poorly synchronized with adjacent myocytes were more prone to triggered activity due to abnormal calcium handling when compared to myocytes with normal connection to adjacent cells. Thus, adequate coupling leads to voltage clamping during calcium waves, thus preventing triggering arrhythmias. While poorly coupled myocytes aren't able to to this due to a weakened currency, making them more prone arrhythmogenesis. These data highlight another critical cellular basis for arrhythmogenesis. In heart failure, while the focus for clinical management is typically areas of scar, there's clearly a role at the cellular level where cell-cell coupling abnormalities can lead to dynamic changes that can increase tendencies to arrhythmogenesis. The role in understanding the varying, arrhythmogenic risk based on varying factors, is important, and might have importance in the future advances in mapping technologies. Changing gears, we review an article published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology by Mazzanti et al within the realm of genetic channelopathies entitled Hydroxyquinoline Prevents Life-Threatening Arrhythmic Events in Patients With Short QT Syndrome. They reviewed a cohort of 17 patients and demonstrated that hydroxyquinoline resulted in a reduction of arrhythmic events from 40% to 0% of patients. QTc prolongation was seen in all patients. These data clearly demonstrate that hydroxyquinoline plays a role in lowering the incidence of arrhythmic events in patients suffering from short QT syndrome. However, it's important to note that in many markets, quinoline has been difficult to access. In the specific case of QT syndrome thus, there's clearly a role for hydroxyquinoline. However, it also must be noted, the comparative efficacy with more commonly available drugs still needs to be evaluated. This past month has been of particular interest in the realm of ventricular arrhythmias, with multiple, potentially ground-breaking articles. One of the well-recited articles published this past month already is by Cuculich et al entitled Noninvasive Cardiac Radiation for Ablation of Ventricular Tachycardia published in the New England Journal of Medicine. Cuculich et al reported the first in-human data on the use of stereotactic body radiation therapy to perform noninvasive ablation of ventricular arryhthmias. Using a combination of noninvasive electrocardiographic imaging curing ventricular tachycardia, and stereotactic radiation, patients were treated with a single fraction of 25 [inaudible 00:31:15] while awake. A total of five patients were included with a mean ablation time of only 14 minutes. During the three months prior to treatment, there was a total of 6,577 VT episodes seen, and during a six week post-ablation period, considered a blanking period, there were 680 episodes. After this blanking episodes, there were only four episodes of VT seen over the ensuing 46 patient months. This study is important because it reflects the first in-human proof of concept that noninvasive ablation using radiation therapy traditionally as for treatment of solid tumors, may be affective in targeting cardiac tissue. Furthermore, modern techniques such as noninvasive electrocardiographic imaging might allow for a fully noninvasive experience for the patients. This is a vast advance seen within the realm of cardiac electrophysiology. In the early days, all we could do was map invasively and then have to go to much more invasive, open-heart surgery to treat arryhthmogenic substrates. Since the advent of catheter and radiofrequency ablation, surgical ablation is relatively fallen by the wayside, to a less invasive approaches. A completely noninvasive approach to successfully targeting tissue is potentially ground-breaking. However, there are several limitations in this study that can only be ascertained by reading the actual article. When we actually review the patients included, the long term follow-up was limited to only four patients, as one patient actually died within the blanking period, and in fact, this patient suffered from the largest burden overall of VT. Furthermore, amongst the remaining four patients, one required a redo ablation within the blanking period, and one had to be restarted on amioderone after the blanking period was over. Thus further data is really needed to clarify efficacy, given the overall success rate appears to be less than 50% on a per patient basis. Though on an overall episode basis, there was significant reduction. The exact type of radiation to be used also needs to be considered, within the realm of solid oncology. Stereotactic radiation is considered an older modality, with proton beam, and more recently, carbon beams offer more directed therapy. Thus, a lot more data is required to identify the promise of radiation therapy. Though again, this is a significant advance. Next, within the realm of invasive electrophysiology, we review an article by Turagam et al published in the JACC Clinical Electrophysiology entitled Hemodynamic Support in Ventricular Tachycardia Ablation: An International VT Ablation Center Collaborative Group Study. The utility of hemodynamic support during VT ablation is relatively unclear. Studies have been variable and limited. This group included 1,655 patients who underwent 105 VT ablations using hemodynamic support with a percutaneous ventricular assist device. Those undergoing support overall tend to be sicker, including lower ejection fractions and [inaudible 00:34:07] classes, and more VT events, including ICD shocks and VT storm. Hemodynamic support use interestingly, was an independent predictor of mortality with a hazard ratio of 5, though there was no significant difference in VT recurrence rates irrespective of the subgroup considered. These data indicate that, while patients are receiving hemodynamic support were overall sicker, there was no clear incremental benefit in use of hemodynamic support in terms of long term outcomes. In the area of substrate ablation, whether use of hemodynamic support to facilitate mapping during VT, actually alters outcomes remains to be seen. This study highlights the potential importance of randomized clinical approaches to better evaluate whether hemodynamic support truly alters the long term outcomes of the VT ablation. Next, we review an article by Munoz et al that focuses more on prediction of those patients who might be at risk for ventricular arrhythmias, again published in the last edition of JACC Clinical Electrophysiology and entitled Prolonged Ventricular Conduction and Repolarization During Right Ventricular Stimulation Predicts Ventricular Arrhythmias and Death in Patients With Cardiomyopathy. Munoz et al reviewed the relationship between paced QRS and pace Qtc and long term risk. A total of 501 patients with mean ejection fractions of 33% were included. Longer paced ventricular QRS and Qtc was associated with a higher risk of ventricular arrhythmia, and all caused death or arrhythmia, irrespective or ejection fraction. A paced QRS duration of 190 milliseconds was associated with 3.6 fault higher risk of arrhythmia, and a 2.1 fault higher risk of death or arrhythmia. These data suggest that findings during [inaudible 00:35:47] pacing and otherwise normal rhythm, including paced QRS and QTc may independently result in elevation of overall risk of ventricular arrhythmia and death. Physiologically these data make sense. In light of the fact that longer cure restorations are probably related to a greater degree of myopathy. While these data offer a prognostic indication, whether they alter outcomes or decision making regarding ICM implantation, remains to be seen. Next, also published in JACC Clinical Electrophysiology, Vandersickel et al reviewed a more cellular basis for toursades in an article entitled Short-Lasting Episodes of Toursades de Pointes in the Chronic Atrial Ventricular Model Have Focal Mechanism While Longer-Lasting Episodes are Maintained by Reentry. Vandersickel et al reviewed the mechanisms underlying toursades, and demonstrated that both focal and reentry mechanisms may exist. In five canines they used broadly distributed neuro electrodes to simultaneously map across the heart. They demonstrated that initiation and termination was always focal, but longer and non-terminal episodes always had reentry mechanisms. These data suggest that the mechanisms underlying toursades actually reflect a spectrum of potentially dynamic, electrophysiologic phenomenon the heart, including both focal and reentry activity. Understanding these mechanisms, and the fact that focal mechanisms almost universally underlie initiation may bring into consideration the optimal treatments whether in the form of pacing and defibrillation techniques or medication techniques for toursades. Finally, in the realm of ventricular arrhythmia, we review an article published in the last month's edition of Heart Rhythm by Penela et al entitled Clinical Recognition of Pure Premature Ventricular Complex-Induced Cardiomyopathy at Presentation. As we know, it's sometimes difficult to recognize patients when they present with frequent PVCs and a depressed injection fraction in terms of, whose injection fractions are purely caused by the presence of PVCs, and whose PVCs are only exacerbated by the presence of an underlying myopathy. The group included 155 patients and excluded all patients who did not normalize their elevated ejection fraction, or who had previously diagnosed structural heart disease, leaving a total cohort under consideration, of 81 patients. About 50% were diagnosed as having a PVC-induced cardiomyopathy on the basis of normalization of elevated function after PVC suppression. While the remainder was considered to have PVC exacerbated cardiomyopathy on the basis that things did not entirely resolve, and thus had an independent mechanism for nonischemic myopathy. Characteristics that suggested patients with a lower likelihood of EF normalization included those with longer intrinsic QRSs, above 130 milliseconds, a lower PVC burden of baseline, considered less than 17%, and larger [inaudible 00:38:33] greater than 6.3 cm. PVCs as a cause of [inaudible 00:38:35] are obviously a well-recognized treatable cause of myopathy, however again, it might be difficult to differentiate. Those patients whose PVCs are a result of the underlying myopathy versus those whose PVCs are the cause, and for whom ablation or suppression may reverse the myopathic process. The work of Penela et at offers an initial attempt at helping differentiate these processes, however validation of larger cohort is necessary. Next we review an article within the realm of syncopy entitled Prohormones in the Early Diagnosis of Cardiac Syncopy by Badertscher et al published in the Journal of the American Heart Association this month. They review the utility of circulating prohormones [inaudible 00:39:14] autonomic dysfunction or neurohormonal abnormalities, to differentiate cardiac from non-cardiac causes of syncopy in the emergency departments. They measured four novel prohormones in a multi-center study. In the emergency departments there is a specific protocol used to determine the perceived likelihood of the cause of syncopy to be cardiac versus non-cardiac. In addition to this, the prohormones are drawn. After this, everyone's final diagnosis was reached. Two independent cardiologists reviewed the cases to determine if it was a truly cardiac or non-cardiac cause of syncopy. Among 689 patients included, 125 overall were adjudicated as cardiac syncopy. Measure of the specific marker MR-proANP in combination with emergency department suspicion of syncopy, performed better than suspicion alone, to differentiate cardiac causes of syncopy. A combination of a circulating MR-proANP, less than 77, picomoles per liter, an [inaudible 00:40:17] probability of cardiac syncopy could be less than 20%, had a very high sensitivity negative predictive value of 99%. The significant resources are often used to manage patients with syncopy presenting to the emergency departments, and it's often extremely difficult at this stage to differentiate cardiac from non-cardiac causes of syncopy. And the amount of evaluation that can be done in the emergency department is often limited. Cardiac caused of syncopy are not good to miss, however, since these can include ventricular arrhythmias, and transient AV block, that might result in death as well. As is well-recognized, emergency department evaluation in clinical [inaudible 00:40:49] are limited in terms of their utility. This raises the utility of objective measures to help differentiates. These data suggest that circulating prohormones [inaudible 00:40:59] your hormonal function drawn during your emergency department evaluation, may be a useful adjunct to differentiate cardiac from non-cardiac syncopy. Whether they can be used to prospectively differentiate those patients requiring inpatient admission or now, however, remains to be seen. The last two articles we'll choose to focus on will fall under the realm of broader, other EP concepts. The first article we will review is by Varghese et al published in Cardiovascular Research entitled Low-Energy Defibrillation With Nanosecond Electric Shocks. Varghese et al reviewed the potential of low-energy nanosecond duration shocks for defibrillation in rapid hearts. In induced fibrillation examples, the repeated defibrillated nanosecond impulses as low as three kilovolts demonstrated effective defibrillation. The energy required is significantly lower than from monophasic shocks and longer pulse durations. Furthermore, there was no detectable evidence of electroporation, namely cardiac or so injury after defibrillation. Using nanosecond impulses, it may be feasible to defibrillate the heart with significantly lower energies. The implications for patients experiencing defibrillation, for example pain, is unclear without in-human studies. However, the ability to use lower energies could have implications in battery life. Further [inaudible 00:42:11] studies will be critical to study ambulatory efficacy as this research is performed in [inaudible 00:42:19] hearts. Finally, we review an article published in Circulation entitled Mortality in Supravascular Events After Heart Rhythm Disorder Management Procedures by Lee et al. Amongst three centers, a retrospective cohort study regarding the mortality and risk of supravascular events, was performed. They included a variety of heart rhythm [inaudible 00:42:40] procedures, including defibrillation threshold testing, lead extraction, device implant, and invasive electrophysiology studies and ablation procedures. Amongst 48,913 patients, 62,065 procedures were performed and an overall mortality of .36% was seen. Supravascular [inaudible 00:42:58] was lower at .12%. Interestingly, and expectedly, the highest risk was seen with lead extraction patients, with an overall mortality risk of 1.9%. Less than half of the deaths seen, however, were directly attributable to the procedure itself. The most common cause of procedural death was cardiac tamponade, largely seen amongst device implant patients. This is critical, as the number of ablation and other invasive electrophysiology procedures performed, is increasing. These data provide a large, contemporary experience regarding the overall risk attributable to a variety of heart rhythm disorder procedures. Interestingly, half of the procedure related deaths were associated with device implantation procedures. With the predominant cause being tamponade, highlighting the importance of early recognition of this treatable complication. Tamponade may not always be considered as a major issue after device implantation, however these data clearly suggest that it is. In addition, extraction, as expected, carried the highest incident of both supravascular events and mortality. Though, this is likely related to the higher rate of core morbidity in this population, including active infection. In summary, this month, we have reviewed 20 articles in various areas of electrophysiology published across the literature. Particularly high impact articles range from those reviewing experience regarding left atrial appendage closure and the efficacy of this, to the utility of using atrial fibrillation to predict risk and long term morbidity and mortality in hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, to further evidence regarding the safety of magnetic resonance imaging in legacy pacemakers and defibrillators, and novel considerations regarding supraventricular tachycardias and there diagnosis and management, especially invasively. Other potential groundbreaking articles included evidence that we can successfully use formal and fixed paraffin-embedded tissue that can be as old as 15 years, to successfully identify genetic mutations that might be responsible for sudden death. And evidence that using novel techniques, we might be able to perform completely noninvasive therapies for arrhythmias by using radiation therapies. However questions were also raised such as regarding the role of hemodynamic support for VT ablation. How to better differentiate those patients who will have recovery of AV conduction from those who won't, as they meet class I indications post cardiac surgery? And whether other factors such as right ventricular pacing during [inaudible 00:45:28] study might further differentiate patients at risk for ventricular arrhythmias in spite of a low ejection fractions. Many of the papers had to deal with tranlational work that still remains to be proven in terms of value at a clinical level, such as demonstrating mechanisms underlying trousades de pointes. Or the potential value of low-energy defibrillation with nanosecond electric shocks. Clinical protocols involving the use of prohormones in the early diagnosis of cardiac syncopy. How to differentiate PVC induced from other causes of myopathy, and how to manage, in the long term, these devices. Also, likely requires further study. Finally, covering all areas of electrophysiology, we reviewed one large article focusing on mortality in supravascular events after heart rhythm management disorder procedures at large. This article highlights the importance of considering institutional experience and reporting it to use as a benchmark to help better optimize our counseling of patients, as well as our procedures and protocols. I appreciate everyone's attention to these key and hard-hitting articles that we just focused on from this past month of cardiac electrophysiology across the literature. Thanks for listening. Now, back to Paul. Dr. Paul Wong:                  Thanks Seraj. You did a terrific job surveying all journals for the latest articles on topics of interest in our field. There's not an easier way to stay in touch with the latest advance. These summaries, and a list of all major articles in our field each month, can be downloaded from the Circulation Arrhythmia and Electrophysiology website. We hope you'll find the journal to be the go-to place for everyone interested in the field. See you next month.  

Show-Me Minute - Tax Subsidies Remember alphabet soup when you were a kid? And trying to make the letters into words? Lawmakers like to play with letters too…with tax subsidies. TIFs, CIDs, TDDs, the list goes on. But they have one thing in common. They give corporations OUR tax dollars. That’s money that we taxpayers could otherwise save and spend ourselves. And Missouri is one of the most generous states when it comes to handing out corporate welfare. More than $5 billion in subsidies since 1990. It might be money well spent if the state was booming…but Missouri stands near the bottom in economic growth. Instead of giving our money to certain businesses, and trying to pick winners and losers, why don’t government officials just cut taxes for all of them, and cut taxes for us too…so we can decide what to do with our money. Check out our 2017 Missouri Blueprint: Moving Missouri Forward at showmeinstitute.org. This Show-Me Minute has been brought to you by Show-Me Institute and Show-Me Opportunity.

Gerald McDowell, Executive Director Of Aerotropolis Atlanta CIDs - February 25th, 2017 by Lou Weiland

vionics Smoke - One smoke detector is fitted in the air extraction duct of the avionics ventilation system. When this detector senses smoke for longer than 5 seconds it signals the ECAM to display a warning, A single chine sounds The master caution lights on the glare shield light up The ECAM displays a caution The smoke light on the EMER ELEC PWR panel lights up, And The blower and extract fault lights illuminate on the ventilation panel. If the smoke is detected for longer than 5 minutes, the caution can be cleared but it remains latched and can be recalled. When on the ground a dual Flight Warning Computer reset will unlatch the condition.   Each lavatory has a single smoke detector in each compartment and it is fitted in the extraction duct grille. When the detector finds smoke, it sends a signal to the CIDS which then transmits it to the FWC to produce an ECAM warning in the flight deck. The CIDS system generates an indication in the cabin to alert the crew. In each waste bin there is an automatic fire extinguishing system, these operate automatically when triggered by heat. There are no controls or indications for these extinguishers. The only way to check if they have discharged is by looking at the bottle pressure gauge.   Cargo Compartments - Cavities in the cargo compartment ceiling panels each hold 2 smoke detectors. Each detector is linked to one of the 2 detection loops. The forward cargo compartment has one cavity and the aft cargo hold has 2 cavities. The CIDS receives signals from the detectors and transmits them to the ECAM which displays a warning in the cockpit. the CIDS system has dual channels. Smoke in 1 cavity activates the cargo smoke warning if; Both smoke detectors detect it, or one smoke detector detects it and the other is inoperative. If the aircraft is fitted with Cargo ventilation and the smoke warning is activated in either compartment the associated isolation lives automatically close and the extraction fan stops. A fire extinguisher system protects the FWD and AFT cargo compartments. One fire bottle supplies 3 nozzles, one in the FWD compartment and 2 in the AFT compartment. The bottle has 2 discharge heads, one for each compartment. In essence this means 2 pipes leave the fire bottle, one to the FWD and AFT compartment. The pipe in the AFT then splits to discharge in 2 different areas while the pipe in the FWD compartment can only discharge in 1 area. When the DISCHARGE pushbutton is pressed for either compartment that action ignites the corresponding squib on the fire bottle, which then discharges the agent into that compartment. If you fire the bottle in the AFT compartment and subsequently receive a warning for the FWD compartment the bottle will be empty. Only 1 compartment can be extinguished. When the bottle has discharged, the amber DISCHARGE light comes on.   A summary of the QRH smoke paper checklist - As soon as smoke is perceived, call for the paper checklist and do the initial actions. - initiate a diversion and start descending to FL100 or MEA - Re-enter the paper checklist and work through though procedure while descending. - at anytime necessary, apply the REMOVAL OF SMOKE/FUMES checklist. - If the Fire become out of control, land asap.

La chorale les Chantefleurs interprète l'Hallelujah du Messie de Haendel

La chorale les Chantefleurs interprète l'Hallelujah du Messie de Haendel

Alexandra Delgado récite une belle comptine de son album pour enfants Kissy Kissy Time

Alexandra Delgado nous interprète la chanson titre de son album : Kissy Kissy Time

Alexandra Delgado récite une belle comptine de son album pour enfants Kissy Kissy Time

Alexandra Delgado nous interprète la chanson titre de son album : Kissy Kissy Time

Le trio est composé de Guillaume Martineau, Éric Lagacé et Raphaël Pannier.

Le trio est composé de Guillaume Martineau, Éric Lagacé et Raphaël Pannier.

Alexandra Delgado interprète une de ses composition : Requiem pour un chat

Alexandra Delgado interprète une de ses composition : Requiem pour un chat

This week on KC Greats we talk to Mark Rowlands to find out exactly what he does with the Downtown Community Improvement District. Check out some of the links below for more information on the CIDs and the people and organizations Mark mentions in the show. Mark on LI: https://www.linkedin.com/in/markprowlands CIDs: http://www.downtownkc.org/community-improvement-districts/ Downtown Council: http://www.downtownkc.org/ Crossroads Academy: http://crossroadsacademykc.org/ Mayor Sly James: http://kcmayor.org/ KCMO City Manager: http://kcmo.gov/citymanagersoffice/

The CFPB recently began a more aggressive approach to the debt industry, bypassing the larger market participant examination process and issuing Civil Investigative Demands (CIDs) to a number of debt collectors directed at specific complaints and alleged practices. In a special episode of the Debt Collection Drill, John Rossman hosts special guest, attorney Mark Peterson. Mr. Peterson is a shareholder with Moss & Barnett, P.A. and has experience in assisting members of the debt industry in responding to CIDs. During the podcast, Mr. Rossman and Mr. Peterson explain the CID process, what a company should expect when a CID is received-including the cost of defending and the difficulties with a CFPB hearing.

The ongoing convergence of Industrial Control Systems (ICSs) with the Internet introduces many challenges from security perspective. Particularly, the smart energy grid as large ICS and critical infrastructure, requires especial protection as the consequences of its failure can be severe. However, even a careful system design cannot prevent all attacks in advance. For this reason, the smart grid requires an additional line of defence that can be provided by a Collaborative Intrusion Detection System (CIDS) to detect unknown and ongoing attacks. In this paper, we describe the requirements to a CIDS for deployment in the smart grid. Furthermore, we discuss the design choices for such a system and summarize the arising challenges in the deployment of CIDSs in smart grids as well as present initial ideas to address them.

Posts of Note: Windows 7, Story Editor, PowerPoint, Balance Lines; Unicodes, GIDs and CIDs; Obscurity of the Week: Missing Glyph ----- Details below, or go to http://indesignsecrets.com/indesignsecrets-podcast-112.php for Show Notes, links, coupon codes, and to leave a comment! ----- Listen in your browser: InDesignSecrets-112.mp3 (17.2 MB, 32:59 minutes) The transcript of this podcast will be posted soon. Blog Posts You Should Know About: Windows 7 and InDesign (Bob Levine) Story Editor Secrets (Steve Werner) Importing PowerPoint into InDesign (James Fritz) When to Use Balance Ragged Lines (Anne-Marie) Time to Get Geeky: Unicodes, GIDs and CIDs Upcoming seminars, webinars, new videos and software Obscure InDesign Feature of the Week: Missing Glyph News and special offers from our sponsors: >> In-Tools has a very cool plug-in called Running Headers which does variable headers, multi-line headers, chapter headers, and more. Special deal: If you can come up with a Running Heads situation that this plug-in can't handle, they will give you a free copy or apply the cost ($59 US) to any other plug-in they sell! That's confidence. As always, InDesignSecrets fans can get $20 off the price for either one of In-Tool's InDesign plug-in bundles, InBook or InSefer, (both of which include Running Headers) if you purchase from this special page on their site. The full list of plug-ins bundled in the packages is here. >> Rorohiko (aka Lightning Brain) has a number of cool plug-ins for InDesign users that slash the amount of time it takes to get something done! For example, FrameReporter ($29 US) lets you see small informational tags when you click on a frame, such as the image's effective resolution or how many words are overset. You can even use it to name frames, and then navigate around your layout via the names. Special for InDesignSecrets listeners: Use the coupon code INDESIGNSECRETS111 (that's "one one one" at the end) in the Rorohiko.com store to get 25% off the FrameReporter plug-in. -- Links mentioned in this podcast: > Balance Ragged Lines was the Obscure Feature in episode 55, here's the podcast transcript > Keith Gilbert's blog post about Sorting the Glyphs panel > Unicode Code Charts > Check out Anne-Marie's new Lynda.com video title, Social Media Marketing with Facebook & Twitter > Read about and download the public beta of David's "Blatner Tools" suite of InDesign plug-ins on the DTPTools site > Anne-Marie will be one of the presenters at the InDesign Conference in Washington DC, Nov 4-6 2009 > Steve Werner's Preflighting Deep Dive webinar has early-bird tickets on sale until Nov 4, the webinar will be on Nov 10 2009